Cherub, Ruby's story
by lpk97
Summary: Ruby is feisty and head strong but will that make or break her CHERUB career? She'll make friends and enemies. Fall in love and have her heartbroken. Get in trouble and be the hero. It's fair to say that in Ruby's life there is never a dull moment!
1. Arrival

**This is my first ever fan fiction, so please please review for me:D I am grateful for any feedback, and I will review yours in return!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own cherub.**

I woke with a start. Where was I? I urgently tried to retrace my memories. But all I could muster was a few fuzzy snippets of a figure drugging me with a needle from behind and then me desperately lashing out as I slipped into a trance of darkness.

I leapt up from the bed. I tried to think rationally, but could feel myself starting to panic as I took in my situation. I was only wearing my bra and knickers, and I was in a room which only had a double bed. The signs were pointing in a direction that I didn't want to think about.

However my thoughts were thrown when I looked beside the bed and found cargo pants, combat boots and an orange t-shirt with a weird symbol of a angel on top of a globe with the word 'CHERUB' printed on. I slipped them on quickly as I took in my surroundings. I was in a posh modern room, equipped with a large, flat screen TV and mini fridge. I spotted a phone in the corner of the room and tried to dial out, unfortunately the line was dead. I pulled up the blinds covering the window to reveal a field containing an assault course and running track. A bunch of kids in similar outfits to mine, but different coloured tops, were being put through their paces by screaming instructors. What is this place? An crazy army camp?

I decided to leave the room to investigate. I cautiously ventured out into a long corridor, and thankfully saw a boy walking past.

"Umm... Excuse me? But where are we?" I asked. He ignored me and continued to walk off, so I chased after him and lightly tapped him on the shoulder, before repeating my question.

"Can't talk to orange" he replied with a superior smirk and tried to walk off again. This time I'd had enough, and side stepped to block his path.

"Listen, I've been drugged and just woken up in a weird room and I don't know where the hell I am!" I shouted in exasperation.

After a moment of hesitation, he muttered "Take the lift to the ground floor, and then it's the second door along." He gave me a nasty look before sulking off.

"Thanks for your help" I called sarcastically. I pressed the button for the lift and within a second it had arrived. I stepped in and waited for the doors to close. There was a large mirror inside the lift and when I caught sight of my reflection, it shocked me. My china blue eyes were glazed over and accompanied with deep purple bags. My normally wavy, honey blonde hair had become frizzy and knotted. I tried to comb my hair with my fingers but it didn't make a difference so I gave up and stared at the ceiling until the lift reached the ground floor.

I walked out of the lift and knocked on the second door along. As the seconds ticked by and no one answered the door, I began to suspect the boy had purposely given me the wrong directions.

At last the door opened. "You must be Ruby." said a mumsy looking lady with a neat pony-tail. "I'm Zara Asker, chairwoman."

"Where am I?" I asked for what felt like the millionth time.

Zara smiled "Come in and I'll explain everything."


	2. Past

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I entered a large, modern office with a desk in the middle. Zara gestured for me to take a seat in one of the leather swivel chairs.

"I'm sure you have a lot of questions." she began "So I'll start with the basics. We're at the CHERUB campus. CHERUB works with the British intelligence service, we use children because they can get away with things that adults can't. So if you choose to stay here, you'll become a CHERUB agent."

"Sorry, did you just say agent? So I'd become like an umm... spy?" I felt slightly stupid asking this out loud, as you only ever here of spy's in movies.

Zara nodded and continued "We give you all the training you need before hand and we only accept high ability students, so before we offer you a place you'll have to complete a series of entrance tests."

"Ok." I nodded; for once in my life I was speechless.

"We usually pick up kids from the children's home after a few weeks, so I know it might be a bit soon after your parent's death."

"My what?" but I didn't need her to answer. Everything came flooding back.

**Two days earlier.**

I was walking down the school corridor with my best friend Katie, laughing at the story she was telling my about her little brother. But we were interrupted when Jodie Thompson came stomping down the corridor with a gang of sheep following her.

"Oh, I was having such a good day until I saw your ugly faces." Jodie sneered at us. She turned to the girls behind her and they all chorused in laughter, even though it wasn't remotely funny.

Jodie and I have been at each other's throats since the first day of school. Katie thinks it's because she's jealous of me but I reckon that she's just that pathetic that she gets pleasure out of insulting people, and so far I've been the only one to stand up to her.

"Just ignore them." Katie whispered to me, knowing my quick temper. But I couldn't help it, and when she tried to barge past us; I angled my shoulder and shoved into her. She slammed backwards into the wall.

"Get her!" She yelled to her friends as she grabbed my hair and yanked me backwards. They all swarmed around and started pushing me. I was out numbered 1 vs. 5. Katie tried to shove them away, but she was useless at fighting. I knew I had to defend myself. I launched my fist at Jodie's face hitting her straight on in the nose. It made a chilling crunch and blood trickled down her face. She clutched her nose and fought back tears as she spat "You're going to pay for this, you bitch."

Unfortunately, a crowd of people had gathered to watch the fight, so the teachers came running to see what the fuss was about.

"What's going on?" Miss Stone demanded.

"It was Ruby, miss." Jodie snivelled "she just started attacking me for no reason."

"No, I didn't..." I started to argue.

But with one look at Jodie's bloody face, Miss Stone assumed I was guilty and shouted "Head masters office, now!" She grabbed my arm, and marched me down the corridor. When we reached Mr Vernon's office, she explained her biased version of what happened. After making me sound like I was a lunatic, Miss Stone finally leaves.

"Sit down, Ruby." Mr Vernon instructed, pointing to a cheap-looking, plastic chair on the other side of his desk. Once I did as he said, he launched into a pointless lecture. I zoned out for most of it, but he caught my attention when he mentioned my twin brother.

"Why can't you be more like Zach?" He sighed "You're always the one in trouble." This is what irritates me the most; I always get compared to Zach. Even though we're twins, we are complete opposites: he's the 'golden boy' who's academic and polite whereas I'm hot headed and always seem to be in trouble.

At last, Mr Vernon's lecture reached an end. He concluded "I will not tolerate any violence, so you are suspended for a week." I was sent home for the rest of the day too.

As I reached the front door, I was really not looking forward to telling my parents what happened. However when I stepped inside, that was the last thing on my mind. There was a trail of blood along the hallway and as I walked in further, I saw my mum slumped against the wall submerged in a pool of blood: dead. I fell to my knees. My emotions choked up inside of me, and I struggled breathe. But I snapped out of it when I heard raised voices coming from the kitchen. I raced to see what was happening but before I got there, I heard a gunshot.

"No!" I cried as I saw my dad lay dead on the ground. The man who had murdered my parents stood just metre's in front of me. He held the gun in his left hand and then began to raise it at me. Instinctively, I darted back and charged towards the stairs. I scrambled up the steps, taking three at a time. I dived into the bathroom, knowing that it was the only room with a lock. As I slammed the door shut I could hear the man's footsteps pounding up the stairs. My adrenaline kicked in, and I hauled myself out of the window.

"Come out, little girl." The man taunted. He began shoulder-charging at the door.

I was now balancing on the roof but unsure of where to go next. I edged down it but lost my footing and rolled off the side. Thankfully, I was able to latch onto the guttering, and was now dangling above a two-metre drop onto concrete. After taking a deep breath, I let go and landed on my bum. I jumped up and began sprinting down the road.

After running for twenty minutes, I was finally sure that I'd escaped. I whipped out my mobile and dialled 999. When the police arrived they insisted that I was taken to the hospital to be checked

over. I was admitted to a room and told to rest. Although my body felt drained, I couldn't sleep. All I could think about was that I was never going to see my parents again. I felt emptiness inside; they were gone and all that was left in their place was a black hole. Tears streamed down my cheeks and I eventually cried myself to sleep.

In the night I was woken by hushed voices. I jumped up from the bed when I saw that I was surrounded by people I didn't know.

"Don't worry, this won't hurt." A woman's voice soothed.

I then felt a sharp needle pierce my arm. I flung my arms around desperately, trying to stop what was happening to me. But my body was limp and I was swallowed into darkness.


	3. Enterance

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Zara continued to explain about CHERUB until she was interrupted by a timid knock on the door.

"Come in." she called. The door creaked open and I realised it was my twin.

"Zach!" I leapt from my seat and flung my arms around him. He was the only family I had left now and I didn't want to let go.

"We are we?" he whispered nervously.

"Come and sit down Zach, and I'll explain everything." Zara assured him.

I noticed his eyes were bloodshot from crying, although he had tried to hide them beneath his floppy blonde hair which drooped over his face. While Zara told him what CHERUB was, I watched intensely for his reaction. His cornflower blue eyes widened in disbelief and he turned to me for conformation.

"It's true." I smiled as I held his hand giving it a comforting squeeze.

"Ok, so before we offer you two places at CHERUB, you will have to do a series of entrance tests. It is split into five parts and there will probably be some that you aren't used to, but just try your best." Zara stood up signalled for us to follow her out. "I'll give you a tour as we make our way to the dojo." Dojo? Wow they really are serious about the spy thing, I thought to myself.

As we left the building, Zara began the tour "Here we have the tennis courts, and there's the running track and over to the right is the paintballing centre." Zara listed of all of the incredible facilities, pointing out each one to us.

"This place is awesome!" I enthused.

"Cool" Zach added eagerly, when Zara showed us the race track.

We finally reached the dojo and Zara led us inside. When we entered, there was already a boy and a girl wearing red shirts stood there. Immediately, I realised that it was the same boy that I had argued with earlier. He was short but stocky with cropped black hair. Zara introduced him as Aaron. He smiled smugly at me.

"You will be sparing with your opponent. The winner is the first to win three submissions. Either opponent can withdraw at anytime. No eye-gouging or hair pulling. Take your shoes and socks off" Zara instructed "The boys will go first."

The boys walked onto a blue, foamy matt, standing about two meters away. Zach faced Aaron gingerly. Zach was a full head taller than Aaron, but for what he lacked in height, Aaron made up for in muscle which made Zach's arms look stick thin in contrast.

"Fight!" Zara shouted.

Aaron charged into Zach, the force winded Zach and he was knocked to the floor. Aaron swung down to punch, but Zach rolled to the side just in time. Zach scrambled to his feet and threw a wobbly punch. Aaron intercepted by grabbing Zach's arm and then twisting it behind his back.

"Oww" Zach yelped in pain "I submit." But Aaron didn't let go.

"Let him go! He said he submits!" I yelled.

"Aaron..." Zara warned.

Reluctantly, Aaron loosened his grip and lied "Oh, I didn't hear him." Zach moaned and rubbed his aching shoulder.

"One point to Aaron. Take your places again." Zara said waiting for them to get into position. "Fight!"

Zach tried to attack first, kicking his foot into Aaron's stomach. It made contact but Aaron didn't flinch, instead he used it as an opening to grab Zach's leg and send him off balance. Aaron then easily shoved him to the ground and pinned him down with his knee digging into Zach's same shoulder that he had previously twisted.

"I submit" Zach cried.

"2 points to Aaron." Zara informed as the boys got into their positions. "Fight!"

This time Zach decided to just try and dodge the attacks. As Aaron lunged forward, Zach jumped to the side and when Aaron tried to punch Zach leaped backwards. Zach had naturally fast reflexes and managed to avoid many of Aaron's attacks. They continued playing cat and mouse until Aaron caught Zach off guard and launched a powerful roundhouse kick, striking Zach in the stomach. Zach flew back on to the floor, with Aaron standing threateningly above him.

"Zach just submit. There's no point in you getting beat up anymore." I begged. I hated seeing my brother in pain and wanted to jump in and defend him, but I restrained myself knowing that I had to be on my best behaviour or we might not be offered places at CHERUB.

"I submit." Zach muttered in defeat.

"Aaron wins 3-0. Ruby and Sophie, you're up" said Zara.

Sophie had a similar build to mine as we were both tall and slim. But our looks were contrasting as she had cropped mousey brown hair, whereas mine was blonde, wavy and was almost down to my waist. As I turned to face Sophie, I cracked my knuckles on each fist: preparing for the fight but also hoping to freak her out a little. Zara chuckled, probably guessing my tactic.

"Fight."

Sophie threw a strong punch towards my face, but like Zach I had quick reflexes, and so knocked her arm out of the way giving myself an opening to attack. Using all of the power I could, I launched my fist at her face, hitting her on the socket of her eye. She would have a nasty bruise there tomorrow. As she leant over clutching her face, I swung my knee to her chin making her stumble backwards. I hovered for a moment unsure of what to do next, so using the same move I saw Aaron use on Zach, I twisted Sophie's arm behind her back. When she didn't submit, I yanked it backwards trying to apply more pressure. Suddenly, I heard her shoulder pop. She screamed in agony. I immediately let go as she crumpled to the ground. I was horrified by what I saw: her shoulder bone was perturbing from her body at a disgusting angle.

"I withdraw" she managed to say as she fought back tears.

Zara rushed over to help her. "She's dislocated her shoulder from the socket," Zara informed us. "Aaron, help her to the medical centre."

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to." I apologised. There was no way they were going to let us join CHERUB now that I'd injured someone. I'd screwed it all up for both Zach and I. Aaron smirked at me before helping Sophie to hobble out.

As I turned to Zara, I expected her to be angry but she was the complete opposite. "Well done Ruby, you won by Sophie's withdrawal." Zara praised. I felt a rush of relief that I hadn't actually ruined my chance of getting into CHERUB. We followed Zara out of the dojo, and started to walk to the next part of the test.

"You had some good skill in there, have you had any training?" Zara wondered

"No, but I've got into quite a few fights in the past." I admitted.

Zara paused for a moment, considering what to say, before replying "That's ok as long as you stay out of trouble here, presuming you get in."

"I will." I promised. But I wasn't sure whether it would be one I was able to keep.


	4. Tests

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Zara led us into a large classroom. Two desks had been positioned in the centre of the classroom; both had a test paper and one pencil on.

"The next part of your entrance test is an exam paper. You'll have 45 minutes." said Zara as she made her way to the teacher's desk at the front of the classroom, where she would stay for the duration of the exam to make sure there was no cheating.

Zach was pleased when he found out that they were doing an exam paper, because he had always been clever and this would be his time to shine. I, on the other hand, was dreading the exam because my talents had always been athletic rather than academic.

Once Zach and I were seated, Zara instructed "your time starts now, you can begin the test."

When I opened the paper and read the first question, my heart dropped: maths. I read the question over and over again in my head but I still couldn't make sense of what to do. I flipped the page over to the next page and was gutted to see more maths. I was started to get irritated. Why on earth do I need to know 'the optimum amount of apples that John could buy' or whatever else the stupid questions asked?

I looked over to Zach and saw that he was intensely focused and scrawling answers in the booklet. Why did he find it so easy? I'd always assumed that he was just born a genius, but as I thought about it, I realised Zach had worked hard ever since he was young. He'd always do his homework and would study every night when he came home from school. Whereas I'd thought that I would never really need school for anything, but I was proved wrong as I definitely needed it now. I started to get annoyed at myself for never paying attention and skipping so many classes.

In the end, I gave up and rested my head on the desk. "Ruby, is everything alright? Zara asked "You've still got over half an hour left."

"Fine." I muttered moodily. I was mad at myself for not knowing the answers, and also being in a classroom reminded me of how much I hated school. So I couldn't help the moody tone that I had given Zara.

"Could I have a word with you outside, Ruby?" Zara asked but the stern tone of her voice and the fact that she had already stood up, told me that it wasn't really a question. And the phrase 'can I have a word' had been used on me so many times by teachers that I knew that I was going to get told off. I sighed and shoved back my chair before following her out and slumping against the corridor wall.

"Stand up straight." Zara shouted sharply, making me jump. All of the friendliness that she'd shown me when we'd first met had gone. I did as I was told, not wanting to annoy her anymore than I already had.

"You need to drop the attitude" Zara told me "I've seen your record, so I know that you've been in a lot of trouble. Being expelled from a school and suspended 5 times, is not something I take lightly."

I avoided eye contact and glared down at the floor. My bad reputation was something that I wasn't proud of.

Zara continued "However, there is something I find intriguing about you so I'm willing to make an exception." I glanced up and smiled.

"So, are you going to tell me what happened in there?" Zara asked referring to the way I reacted to the exam.

"I couldn't answer anything, and I know it's probably my fault for never bothering about school and stuff," I explained "and being back in a classroom reminded me of how much I hate school."

"Well, CHERUB isn't like any of the schools you've been to." said Zara "And the most important thing is that you've realised that you need to start trying in lessons. You seem like a naturally bright girl, so I'm sure it wouldn't take you long to catch up."

"Yeah, I know I need to start making more of an effort." I agreed.

"I know you're a bit of a handful but I think you're a great fit for a cherub agent." Zara encouraged "So, I suggest you get back in there and just give it a go."

When I walked back in, Zach looked up from his paper and asked concernedly "Is everything ok?"

"Yeah, it's fine. Just not everyone is as clever as you!" I joked.

"Quiet, there is still a test going on." Zara warned.

I sat back down and looked over my paper. After flicking a few pages in, I found a general knowledge section and decided to just have a try. I surprised myself by knowing the answers to almost all of the questions. I might not be clever, but I was quite intuitive. I skipped the science section, knowing that certainly wasn't one of my strong points. I was pleased to find a language part. My dad was Italian, and had taught us since we were young, so Zach and I were fluent. My mum was half French and tried to teach over the years, so we were both practically fluent in French as well. I felt a sudden stab of sadness as I realised that I would never be able to speak to my parents again; not in Italian, French or even English. They were gone and there was nothing that I could do about it. I shoved my emotions to the back of my mind and began the language section. I eased through the questions, without any struggle, until Zara stopped me as the exam time was over.

The next part of the entrance exam was in the room opposite. When I walked in, I was shocked to see two caged chickens in the middle of the room.

"All I need you to do is kill a chicken." Zara said casually.

Zach was horrified "No, way!" He protested.

"Fine." Zara shrugged. "How about you, Ruby?"

Feeling that I had to prove myself after what happened in the previous exam, I agreed. I made my way over to the cage and unlocked it. I took a deep breath before clasping the chicken firmly in my arms: so that it couldn't move. I placed my hands round its neck and twisted in opposite directions. There was a crunch as its neck snapped and its body went limp in my arms.

"Well done." Zara praised before adding "You can go and get something to eat in the cafeteria and after that we'll continue with the last two stages of the test."

Zara had pointed out the cafeteria at the start of the tour, so Zach and I knew where to go. We had a bit of light chatter on the way over; we didn't want to touch on the pressing subject of our parents' death.

"How's your shoulder?" I asked, remembering how Aaron had twisted it and pinned him down on it.

"A bit sore." Zach admitted. "But I'll be alright."

We didn't speak for a while as we were both thinking about mum and dad. All you could hear was our footsteps squelching in the mud.

I decided to break the silence "Mum and Dad would want us to move on with our lives, Zach." I told him "I think CHERUB is the best place for us."

"Yeah, I know." Zach agreed.

We entered a noisy canteen filled with other kids, but as soon as we walked in there was a deadly silence and everyone turned to stare at us. I've always been really confident, but even I was slightly intimidated by all of these people staring. There was hushed whispering about the 'new kids'. I suppose they were talking about me and Zach then.

"Come on, Ruby." Zach urged as he walked with his head down over to the lunch cue.

But I stayed where I was and shouted "What's wrong with you all? It's like you've never seen people before!" Most people turned away, embarrassed that they were caught staring and gossiping.

However one cocky little boy yelled back "Yeah, but none have been as gorgeous as you!" There were a few laughs from his friends as they egged him on before he added "You should come and sit next to me."

I chuckled for a moment before responding "I think you need to reach puberty first, but in a few years I'll think about it." The boys face flushed red as the whole cafeteria burst into laughter.

Well, I'd definitely made a first impression on everyone.


	5. Results

**Disclaimer: I don't own cherub. **

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No one else bothered us at lunch. Maybe because we were orange shirts so they weren't supposed to talk to us, or maybe it was because of the scene I created earlier. Either way it worked out best for me as I didn't want to talk, I just wanted some time to think and take in everything that had happened in the past couple of days. There was one thing I knew for sure: CHERUB was the only thing we had now, and I was going to do everything I could to get Zach and I a place here.

After about fifteen minutes, Zara came into the cafeteria to find us. When she entered, the loud chatter turned to silence, but this time I think it was due to respect. A few kids called out "Hi Zara." She responded with a friendly smile as she made her way over to where me and Zach were sat.

"You ready for the last two stages?" Zara asked.

"Yeah, let's do it." I answered, trying to sound enthusiastic as I jumped up from my seat.

Zara led us towards a modern building, as we got close I was hit by the strong smell of chlorine, so I presumed it was going to be swimming. My assumption was confirmed as we stepped inside where there was an Olympic sized pool.

"The changing rooms are in there." Zara said pointing to a door on the left.

There were male and female changing rooms so Zach and I had to split up. I walked into the female changing room and found a swimming costume and towel laid out neatly for me. I slipped the costume on and then scraped my hair back into a messy bun. I walked back out at exactly the same time as Zach; he was only wearing a pair of small swimming trunks. He had his arms crossed over his skinny body self consciously. Zach had always been a bit insecure, even though he was good looking with blonde hair and blue eyes like mine.

As we walked back to Zara, I noticed she had a boy stood next to her with his back to us.

"We're ready." I called to Zara. At that moment, the boy turned around and surprise surprise it was Aaron again. He gave me a stuck up grin which I wanted to slap off his face. However I restrained myself seen as Zara was only inches away.

Zara was oblivious and told us "I need you to each dive off the 10 metre springboard and swim as far as you can underwater."

Both Zach and I were fairly confident as we were strong swimmers due to our mother insisting we have lessons. Her sister tragically drowned when she was a child and the lifeguard didn't get to her in time, so my mum wanted to make sure that we would be able to help ourselves if a situation like that ever happened.

"Zach, you go first." Zara instructed.

Zach climbed up to the springboard and looked over to Zara for a signal to begin.

"Just go already." Aaron shouted at him.

Zach opted for a textbook forward dive and cut perfectly into the water. He swam through the water doing front crawl until he surfaced, not far from the end of the pool.

"Nice dive." Zara commented as she measured Zach's distance "You reached 43 metres."

After Zach had got out of the pool, it was my go. As I made my way to the springboard, Aaron jogged over to me.

"Don't try too hard, Barbie." he scoffed referring to my long blonde hair and naturally tanned skin "You might break a nail."

I gave him a dirty look but didn't rise to his insult and climbed up to the board. I was determined to prove Aaron wrong and decided to show off. As I leapt off the springboard I rotated my body away from the board and spiralled into two and a half summersaults, I then did a full twist and glided effortlessly into the water. My timing was spot on and I barely made any splash. That will show Aaron, I thought.

I pumped my arms and legs fast to propel me through the water and kept my focus on the bottom of the pool which was a handy trick my swimming coach had taught me. As I approached the end of the swimming pool I still had a bit of air left in my lungs, so I dolphin kicked off the wall to turn around, and carried on swimming. I was quickly running out oxygen and my chest felt like it was being crushed inside. I managed a couple more frantic strides before I surfaced gasping for air.

"Wow that was fantastic!" Zara exclaimed breaking into a huge grin. "You reached a distance of 62 metres." Aaron just stood staring at me dumbfounded; he definitely wasn't expecting that.

"You can both go and get dried and changed, before we move onto the last part of the test." Said Zara. I headed into the female changing room pleased with my performance. Bring on the last test, I thought to myself. When I was dry and dressed, I went back out. Zach was already there, stood with Aaron but I couldn't see Zara.

"Where's Zara gone." I asked.

"She had to go to a meeting." Zach responded.

Aaron butted in "So I have to take you to the medical centre for the last part of your test."

"Great!" I said with a voice full of sarcasm.

"Whatever, Barbie." Aaron muttered and stomped off, with Zach hurrying after him. I followed at a slower pace not wanting to be anywhere near the arrogant pig. I hung back for the whole journey but I could hear Zach and Aaron chatting, it seemed like they were getting along well, which was a bit irritating. Eventually, we reached the medical centre.

"I'm going now. You two can find your own way back." Aaron said before turning to leave.

"Thanks for bringing us." Zach said politely.

"No problem, mate." Aaron smiled back at him. He looked over at me and held my gaze for a moment until he dropped his eyes to the floor. It looked like he was going to say something, probably another insult, but instead he just jogged off.

I tried to pull the door open, but it was locked so I knocked and waited. A plump nurse answered it immediately.

"You must be Zach and Ruby, come on in." She welcomed us cheerfully. We were led into a large, sterile white room which had a hospital bed, various pieces of medical equipment, and strangely a running machine.

"Ok kids, jump on the bed and I'll go and get the doctor." the nurse said in a jolly but slightly patronising tone.

"What do you reckon we're going to have to do?" I asked Zach.

But it wasn't Zach who answered, at that moment the doctor had come into the room and explained "I'm going to do a medical examination of you by running a series of test. It will let me see your body's natural proportion of muscle, bone density, fitness level, reflex speed and much more."

"Ermm ok." I replied nervously, I'd always hated hospitals, and especially needles.

The nurse from before popped her head round the corner of the door and called "Zach, come with me dear, and I'll do your tests next-door."

Zach followed her out but before he left he chuckled "Good luck, sis."

"First things first, I'm Dr Mathews. Nice to meet you." He held out his hand to me.

"Ruby Mitchell." I smiled as I shook his hand.

"Well then Ruby, let's get started." Dr Mathews said "Go and get on the treadmill." Once I was positioned, he strapped me up with different wires to measure things like heart rate and how much sweat I lose. Dr Mathews started up the treadmill and told me to sprint. I took big strides and pumped my arms up and down. After a while my arms and legs formed a natural rhythm and I didn't have to think about moving them.

"Ok, stop now." Dr Mathews instructed before adding "Very good."

I completed a few more easy tests such as seeing how fast my reflex actions were and checking my vision range, before we moved on to the worst part: needles. Dr Mathews needed to take a biopsy from my arm but as he came towards me with the needle, I instinctively jumped off the bed.

"Don't worry." Dr Mathews reassured me "It won't even hurt."

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. "Just do it quickly" I begged. I felt the sharp needle pierce deep into my skin.

"Oww" I screamed when he pulled it out. Although I could see that he'd only taken a tiny sample, it felt like he'd taken a chunk out of my arm

"You said it wouldn't hurt." I accused while he placed a plaster over the wound.

Dr Mathews laughed and said "All done now, you're free to go." I left the room and waited for Zach, who appeared not long after.

"I could hear you screaming all the way from the other room." Zach teased.

"Shut up" I said and gave him a playful shove.

We made our way back over to Zara's office. We laughed and chatted the whole way. It felt like a weight had been lifted off our shoulders as we had finished the entrance exam. Even if we failed, there was nothing we could do about it now so there was no point in worrying.

When we reached Zara's office, the door was already open and she was sat working at her desk. We hovered outside unsure of whether to go straight in or not

"Come on in, you two." Zara called, sensing that we were there.

"Sorry that I had to leave earlier but it was an urgent meeting." Zara explained as Zach and I sat down in the plush leather chairs opposite Zara. Zara shuffled a stack of paper to the side and asked "So, do you want to know how you did?" Zach and I nodded eagerly.

"Ok so I'll start with you, Zach." Zara began "In the fighting task you struggled, but with training I'm sure you'd improve. The next test was the exam paper and you scored the highest anyone ever has on that section, well done!" Zara praised.

"Erm thanks" Zach replied modestly. He had always been shy about his intelligence, and at school he would sometimes dumb himself down to avoid being picked on by jealous classmates.

Zara continued "You also scored quite well on the next test, as you couldn't be pressured into killing the chicken when you didn't want to, however you dropped marks for being squeamish. You also passed the swimming test with another good score. Finally, the medical exam. It showed that you have naturally good reflexes, but you need to gain strength and stamina."

"Ok." Zach nodded, pleased with the feedback that he'd got.

"Now, Ruby." Zara said moving onto my results. "You did very well in the fighting test, as you managed to beat someone who had training and experience. In the exam test you didn't do well, as you probably expected, although you did get good marks on the questions that you attempted. If you join CHERUB you would need a tutor to help you catch up."

"Ok." I agreed, even though the thought of doing extra school work didn't sound very fun.

"You passed the chicken test with ease. And you did excellent on the swimming test; I was particularly impressed with the flips in the dive. Where did you learn that?" Zara inquired.

"I've done gymnastics since I was a kid." I explained.

Zara continued "Finally, the medical test, you did very well as you should a high fitness level and natural ability." I was happy with my results, although I let myself down in the exam paper.

It was the moment of truth, as we were about find out if we had been accepted into CHERUB.

Zara dragged out the process so slowly that it was painful "After carefully considering all of your results..." she paused for effect before exclaiming "I would be delighted to welcome you both to CHERUB." A grin spread across my face and I flung my arms around Zach in excitement.

"So, it's up to you two to decide if you want to join?" Zara asked even though it was obvious by my reaction that it was a yes.

"Definitely." Zach smiled

"Ok, well there are a few things that I need to run through first." Zara said as she handed us each a light blue cherub t-shirt. "Seen as you're both 13, you are eligible to go into basic training which is a gruelling 100 day course that you must complete before you can go on missions. The next one starts in a few weeks time."

Zara also told us that we had to change our last name. Zach and I discussed it and threw different ideas around for a few minutes, but none of them seemed to fit.

"How about Richie? Mums maiden name." Zach offered.

Ruby Richie. I thought about it for a moment before agreeing "Yeah, it has a nice ring to it."

"Ok, so it's Zach and Ruby Richie?" Zara confirmed. We both nodded in unison.

"I think that's everything then." Zara said as she handed us each a room key. "I suggest you go and get some dinner and introduce yourselves to everyone."

"Ok, thank you." Zach replied as we left.

"Bye Zara" I called.

When we left Zara's office, Zach and I turned to each other with identical grins on our face. We couldn't believe our luck; all I hoped was that it didn't run out...


	6. Friends and Enemies

**Please review so I know whether to continue or not!**

When Zach and I entered the cafeteria, we got a completely different response than we had the first time. Most people didn't pay us much attention but a few called out congratulations. As we cued for our dinner a girl with spiky brown, pixie hair introduced herself as Grace, and welcomed us to CHERUB. Not everyone was pleased about our arrival though. After Zach and I had collected our food and were about to sit down with Grace, Aaron walked into the cafeteria.

When he spotted me, he sighed and called out meanly "They must let anyone in nowadays."

"Obviously, seen as you're here." I retaliated quickly.

Aaron strode over and squared up to me. "You think you're all it don't you, Barbie?" He spat, using the annoying nickname he'd given me. "Prancing around with your stupid blonde hair, thinking you own the place."

"Oh shut up, Aaron!" Grace interrupted. I knew instantly that we would be friends, she was my type of person.

But Aaron ignored her and continued "You think you're something special, when you're not. Are you?"

He leaned in close and whispered so that only I could hear "'I've heard your story. You couldn't even save your parents."

That was it. The moment he'd mentioned my parents, my rage erupted. I flung the tray that I was holding into Aarons face. The shock of my outburst knocked him back and he had the contents of my dinner smeared over his face. But my anger still burnt strong and I brought my fist back about to punch him. However I felt a tight hand clasp my arm, restraining me from hitting him. I struggled for a moment, trying to break free, but their grip was too strong.

"He's not worth it, Ruby." The person restraining me said firmly, and I realised it was Grace. She dragged me away from Aaron to calm me down, still holding me in an arm lock.

"Ok, you can let me go, I won't hit him." I assured her even though I wasn't totally convinced myself. Reluctantly she loosened her clasp. At that moment, one of the kitchen chefs marched over to me and shouted "Go to the chairwoman now!"

I stormed out of the cafeteria and slammed the door behind me. I didn't go to Zara's office straight away, instead I went outside to try and cool down my anger. I was still irritated as it was unfair that Aaron had been so underhand and nasty but I would be the one in trouble. After I'd had a few minutes to gain control of myself, I decided I had better go and face Zara.

The receptionist told me to sit and wait outside Zara's office until she called me in. I watched the clock hands turn through the seconds and minutes as I was left waiting. I was growing impatient as I just wanted to get it all over with now.

At last, Zara called me in. She wore a stern expression and told me to sit down.

"I've just been informed by one of the chefs that you tried to start a fight in the cafeteria." Zara began. "He mentioned that you were provoked, however that is no reason to react the way you did."

If I'd have told Zara what Aaron had actually said regarding my parents, she probably would've been more understanding, but I couldn't bear to repeat the nasty words he'd said to me. Instead, I just sat with my head hung down, staring at the floor.

"You've been out of my sight for 10 minutes and you have already got into a fight." She said exasperated. I zoned out as I couldn't face listening to another pointless lecture. But she caught my attention when she mentioned my punishment.

I thought I'd probably get a detention or something but I should know that CHERUB is different to other schools, and Zara told me that I had to run 350 laps over a two week period.

"So you should aim to run at least 25 laps a day to complete your punishment in two weeks." Zara explained.

"Ok, you can go now." She said before adding "Oh and I've arranged a tutor for you, go to the library at 7am tomorrow so that you can study for an hour before lessons begin."

I felt sluggish as I walked out of Zara's office, but my mood brightened when I saw that Grace had waited outside for me.

"Hey, you alright?" Grace asked sympathetically.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." I smiled; there was no point in self pity.

"Aaron was being an asshole; he deserved getting that mash potato shoved in his face." Grace laughed.

"Well Zara definitely didn't see it that way."

"What punishment did you get?" Grace asked.

"350 laps." I sighed at the thought.

"I've still got 150 laps left to do from the time I was caught drunk on campus." Grace said, telling me a funny story about her and her friends all getting wasted. I was beginning to like this girl more and more.

"Anyway, so could run our laps together sometime." Grace suggested.

"Sure!" I grinned, as running with a friend was a lot more appealing than running hundreds of laps alone.

I noticed the time from the clock on the wall and realised that I needed to unpack.

"I'd better go and unpack all my stuff now." I said reluctantly.

"I'll help you, if you want?" Grace offered sweetly.

Grace and I got to work straight away, folding and hanging all of my clothes: and I had a hell of a lot. My mum had worked in the fashion industry and it had rubbed off on me.

We were interrupted by a knock on the door, Grace had called some of her friends to come over, and introduce themselves to me.

The first one to introduce himself was Chris; he was quite good looking however he had shoulder length hair, which I don't find attractive on boys. He was stood with his arm around his girlfriend, Becca, who was petite and had a cute blonde bob. The last person was Jamie, who had a really cheeky personality which made me laugh because it contradicted his innocent appearance: he had wide green eyes and a huge shinny white grin. They all came in and we hung out in my room.

Jamie had missed dinner, so Grace excitedly explained about mine and Aaron's fight. She over exaggerated on some parts, making it seem a lot crazier than it had actually been.

However Jamie loved the story and high fived me, whilst grinning "That's awesome, I'm gutted that I missed it."

We sat and chatted, while I carried on unpacking. They all shared stories from basic training: they were all grey shirts. So they gave me handy tips on how to get through it, but also scared me a little by telling me some of their gruesome experiences.

When they all eventually left, I decided to go and check on Zach, whose room was a few doors down from mine. I didn't stay long though because he had a few friends round so I decided to leave them to it.

In the end I opted for an early night because Grace and I had planned to go running at half past 6, then I had my tutor at &, and then school at 8. I snuggled into my double bed and fell instantly to sleep.

About an hour later, I was woken by a knock at my door. I crawled out of bed and slipped on my dressing gown before opening the door. I was surprised to see Jamie stood there. He was wearing baggy grey track suit bottoms and a t-shirt drenched in sweat so it was obvious he had just been working out.

"Hey." He smiled "I thought I'd pop by before I went to my room. Mind if I come in?"

"No, sure. Come in." I replied, still feeling half asleep. Jamie slumped down on my bed and I went and lay next to him. He grinned at me suspiciously.

"What?" I questioned, while smoothing down my hair in case that's what he was laughing at.

"Nothing just I've been thinking about you a lot." He said smoothly, making me cringe a little.

He pulled his sweaty t-shirt off while apologising "Sorry, I've just been lifting weights." When he took his top off, he revealed an incredibly toned chest and six pack; the type of body that most girls lust over.

I smirked and raised my eyebrow playfully. Suddenly, he leant over me and kissed me on the lips. The kiss lingered for a few seconds. It was nice but nothing special so I pulled back.

He stared at me dreamily for a moment before saying "I should probably go." He stood up and grabbed his t-shirt from the ground.

"Good night." He smiled before adding "See you around."

I fell back on my bed, wondering if it had been a dream.


	7. Boy drama

**Please review, I love to hear what people think and if you like it or not?**

My alarm clock jumped to life at 6am, blasting out an agitating buzzer noise. My body begged me to stay under my covers, but I forced myself out. I shoved my running gear on and brushed my hair into a neat ponytail. I met Grace on the athletics track and we started running. As we were jogging, I filled her in on what had happened with Jamie. She looked disappointed when I told her that we kissed, so I realised she must fancy him.

"It didn't really mean anything." I reassured her "I think we're better as just friends."

I could tell Grace was pleased to hear this but I didn't pressure her into admitting that she liked him. It took us about 45 minutes to run 25 laps, so after that I headed back to my room with enough time to have a quick shower before heading to my tutor lesson.

I reached the library at a few minutes past 7. There was only one other person in there so I presumed that he was my tutor.

When he noticed me walk in, he stood up and smiled "Hi, I'm Olly." He was nothing like I had expected my tutor to be. I was imagining my tutor to be a scrawny geek who was too shy to talk to me. Instead Olly was tall with broad shoulder and was incredibly good looking with gelled blonde hair.

"Hey I'm Ruby" I smiled

"I know who you are." He said, raising his eyebrow."You're famous around here after that fight you had in the cafeteria the other day."

"More like infamous." I laughed.

"You must be a bit of a bad-girl rebel, getting into trouble the moment you arrive." Olly teased playfully.

"Well you must be a bit of a geek, offering to give tutor lessons in your free time." I retorted

"Actually I didn't offer, Zara gave it me as my punishment."

"Oh, so you're a bit of a bad boy yourself then?" I teased.

Olly laughed before suggesting "Maybe we should study in my room, it's more private?" But the way that he said it implied that we wouldn't be studying.

"Sure." I grinned as I was starting to fancy Olly more and more. I'd had quite a few boyfriends in the past but none of them were serious, I had a feeling this would be different.

When we reached Olly's room, we continued our flirty banter.

"You seem like a high maintenance girl." He said cheekily while playing with my long hair.

"You're high maintenance yourself, with all that gel in your hair" I replied and ran my fingers through his hair, spiking it up.

We chatted for the whole hour, and didn't get any work done. By the end I felt like I knew Olly really well, he was so easy to talk to. I found out that he was also relatively new and had only been at CHERUB for 2 months, he would be going into basic training with me in a few weeks.

"We should go grab some breakfast before lessons start." Olly said, and so we made our way to the cafeteria. Grace, Chris, Becca, and Jamie were already sat at a table.

Grace waved us over and called "Come and eat with us, Ruby." Olly and I got our food and went over to sit with the group. I sat opposite Jamie and felt the awkwardness; he wouldn't look me in the eye. I think he was upset that I was with another boy.

When everyone else was engulfed in conversation, I turned to him and said "Hey Jamie, about last night, I think it's better if we're just friends."

"Fine." He muttered miserably.

I felt bad so added "You should get closer with Grace, I think she likes you." He looked pleased about hearing this.

"Just call me cupid." I winked.

After that I had lessons until the afternoon. They weren't exactly fun but they were better than the ones at my old school, because the classes only had 10 students so the teachers kept me on my toes. I ran laps after school and trained in the dojo, then had dinner with everyone and hung out for the rest of the night with Olly.

By the time that I eventually crashed out in my room, I was exhausted. But I was loving my life at CHERUB. Zach was too, and I was pleased to see that he had found a group of nice friends.

About a week later, Olly and I were called to Zara's office.

"I'm not pleased to see you here again." Zara said to me. "You've been called to my office twice in a week. I hope you're not becoming a regular trouble maker."

"Why, what've I done?" I asked, confused. I thought I'd been pretty well behaved, I'd only been chucked out of class a few times for mucking about, but that was all.

"I was disappointed to see that your maths and science results have not improved." Zara said seriously, making it out to be a bigger deal than I thought it was. "I don't understand why they've not improved now that you're having tutor lessons. Can you explain this to me?" Zara asked accusingly.

I knew it was because Olly and I had been spending my study time chatting and kissing, but I wasn't going to tell Zara that.

Olly spoke first "I don't think Ruby's been taking her work very seriously. But I'll make sure that I push her harder from now on."

I stared blankly at Olly, wondering why he just dropped me in it like that. I was going to tell Zara that I felt ill on the day of the tests, which would've got us both off the hook. But instead Olly stitched me up to save himself.

"Well then Ruby, you've earned yourself a 2 hour one on one session with a training instructor and another 100 laps." Zara said. I sighed, furious with Olly that he'd made me get even more laps to do and a one on one session.

"You can continue your tutor lessons with Olly, but I want to see an improvement." Zara said before adding "And I'll be keeping my eye on you."

When we left, I turned to Olly raging "That was a pretty low thing to do, dropping me in it like that."

"Sorry, but there was no other way out of it. At least I still get to tutor you, so we can spend time together." Olly said sincerely. I was still annoyed and ignored him.

"Come on, give over." Olly pleaded, wrapping his arms around me so I was in a bear hug. "I'll even run the laps with you."

"Deal." I said while planting a big kiss on his cheek.


	8. Basic

**Sorry I've not updated in a while, but I'm not sure if anyone is actually reading this! So please review to tell what you think, and just ask if you want an update!**

The next couple of weeks were a blur. I never had a minute to spare, I was always doing something. I signed up for martial arts classes which soon turned my natural ability into advanced skill. I had competed all of my punishment laps and so I was in the best shape possible. I continued my tutor lessons with Olly, although we didn't spend much of time doing school work. We had grown so close over the weeks, that he had actually asked me to be his girlfriend.

My alarm clock buzzed mercilessly at 4am. Realisation hit me that today was the dreaded first day of basic training. I dragged myself out of bed and trudged into the bathroom. I forced myself to have a long cold shower to wake myself up: I'd never been much of a morning's person. After I had soaked in the shower, I braided my hair into a neat fishtail plait and put on the set of clothes which had been laid out for me while I was in the bathroom. The clothes were slightly different to the standard CHERUB kit. The t-shirt and combat trousers were branded with a large number 4. The second difference was that the condition of the clothes was awful: there were tears in the fabric, large stains over the t-shirt, and the boots were caked in dried mud. It looked like it had been through a war zone, and I was questioning what I was about to let myself in for. In the end I chose to wear my own comfy boots instead of the tatty ones that had been left out for me. However there was no other option but to wear the t-shirt and trousers because they had my number 4 on. I decided to sneak a pair of thermal leggings on underneath my combat trousers, because it was winter and so warmth would be vital. The clothes were accompanied by a bulky rucksack containing tonnes of equipment. I heaved it onto my right shoulder, leaving everything inside as you never know what might come in handy.

Once I was ready, I met up with Olly and Zach. I was pleased to see that Olly was number 3, so I would be partnered up with him. Zach was number 7, so was unsure who he would be partnered with. We made our way to get breakfast. The cafeteria was completely empty seen as it was so early. We all requested a fry up, and when the chef brought it over it looked delicious. There was crispy bacon, fried eggs, baked beans, and buttered toast. I stuffed my face with as much as possible, knowing that we wouldn't be eating like this in a while.

We were due at the basic training compound for 5am, so decided to make our way over so that we definitely weren't late or we would be in trouble straight away. I crammed one last piece of toast into my mouth as we walked to the compound. On the way, we chattered nervously, speculating about what we might be up against.

The training building was a shabby concrete box in the middle of a muddy field. It was surrounded by a five metre high, metal fence. Just the look of it was intimidating. I turned to Zach and Olly and saw that their expressions mirrored exactly what I was feeling. It was slightly comforting to know I wasn't going into this alone.

I saw the head instructor, Mr Large, stood at the entrance. His muscle's bulged out of his white t-shirt and he towered over us.

"In you come kiddies." Mr Large teased with a smirk on his face.

Reluctantly I made my way in. The room had 10 rusty beds with battered mattresses on. Only 5 of them had people stood in front. Zach, Olly and I hurried into our positions, making a total of 8 of us.

"I think that's everyone." Mr Large said clapping his hands together loudly and causing a small, timid looking girl to jump.

Large chuckled in the girl's face, showering her in spit "Bit on edge are we?"

The girl dropped her head to the floor and made a squeaky "Sorry." This caused Mr Large to laugh even harder. He seemed pleased to find someone he could bully so easily and enjoyed watching her squirm.

Whilst Large continued to taunt the poor girl, I looked along the row to see who else was in training. I recognised a few faces from around campus but when I reached the last bed, I was shocked to see Aaron. This experience was going to be bad enough without being stuck in this compound with him for 100 days. I couldn't help but let out a huff of frustration.

Unfortunately this attracted Large's attention to me "Is there a problem Ruby? Is the accommodation not up to your standards?" He sniggered "Or I know, did you break a nail?"

I told myself not to rise to his insult, as that would just make me his target for the rest of basic training. "No everything is fine, thank you." I said staring directly into his steely eyes to show that I wasn't scared by him, and that I wouldn't let him bully me like the other girl. Large looked disappointed by my reaction, and took a step back.

"Now kiddies, time for my welcome speech." Large began "First things first, I would like to introduce Mr Speaks and Miss Smoke." They were both ripped with muscles, not quite to the size of Mr Large nevertheless I wouldn't want to cross them.

Large continued "For the next hundred days, I own you. You will be woken at 0545, then have an ice shower and get dressed and run the assault course. At 0700 it is breakfast then physical training until 0900 when school begins. The lessons are: Espionage, Language, Weaponry and Survival. Before dinner at 1500 you will run the assault course, and then there are 2 hours more of physical training at 1800 you will shower then at 1900 it is the evening meal, followed by homework and then at 2045 it is back to bed."

"So I bet you are all excited?" Large asked. No one knew what to say, but he was waiting for an answer. It sounded like a gruelling routine and I sure as hell did not look forward to it, however I wasn't going to say that to Large. Instead most kids nodded and one lied "Yes sounds fun, sir"

"Well, I'm not here for fun. Seen as you all think it sounds exciting then it obviously isn't hard enough." A smirk covered Larges face "You can go without lunch today, but don't worry, it's only 13 hours until dinner."

The eight of us were paired off. The first pair, numbers 1 and 2, was Sara and Otis. Sara was Graces younger sister, and Grace had asked me to look after her, so I shot Sara an encouraging smile. Otis was born in Jamaica, but had grown up on campus since the age of 5. His build was strong and he had a look of determination; I knew he wouldn't let anything stop him getting his grey t-shirt. 3 and 4 was me and Olly. The next pair, 5 and 6, was Hanna and Drew. They looked like the weakest pair out of everyone. Hanna was the small, mousey girl that Large had picked on earlier, and Drew had only joined CHERUB a week ago, so was still over weight and lacked any training. The final pair was Zach and Aaron. I gave Zach a sympathetic look, as I would've hated to be paired with Aaron.

As Large led us out to the assault course, Otis jogged over to me "You should cut it." He said

"What?" I asked, confused.

"Your hair, you should cut it." He repeated "Trust me it will be easier without it."

I clasped my long plait defensively "No way." I'd been growing my hair for as long as I could remember. I had always wanted it to be as long as my mums, and now it's something that reminds me of her. Cutting it would be like cutting her out of my life.

The assault course was tricky, but Olly and I made a good team. He helped me by taking out some of the weight from my pack and putting it in his, and I helped him by taking the lead because I was quicker and then pointing out slippery points to avoid or finding shortcuts.

Olly and I were the first pair to finish the course, so we had some extra time to rest before the others got back. We were shortly followed by Sara and Otis, and then Zach and Aaron but there was no sign of Hanna or Drew.

Unfortunately this gave Large a reason to punish us. We were made to strip down to our underwear and had to do sit ups and press ups continuously. It was freezing and to make matters worse, Mr Speaks and Miss Smoke would blast us mercilessly with the hose if we were going too slowly. When Hanna and Drew eventually got back, they were covered from head to toe in mud.

Large was furious "What took you so long? It wasn't supposed to be a casual stroll!" He shouted covering them in spit "Whilst you two have been getting your fat arses round the course, your fellow trainee's have been doing punishment exercise on your behalf." Hanna looked sheepishly at us. My body was numb from the cold and ached from the exercise so I glared back with hatred in my eyes.

"Hose them down." Large instructed Speaks and Smoke, who began to jet the mud off them with freezing cold water. Hanna and Drew stood shivering, and dripping with water. They looked anxiously at Mr Large to see what his punishment would be.

"From now on you two will get up early every morning and get your sorry little butts round the assault course before everyone else is awake, and then you can run it again with everyone else." Drew couldn't keep the look of horror off his face.

Large jabbed his finger into Drew's podgy belly "You can miss dinner tonight as well, it's not like you need any more food, fatso."

By the time it was dinner my body was exhausted, so I was thankful to huddle round a table with the other trainees and eat some much needed food. Drew stared longingly at our meals, so in the end his partner, Hanna, offered him half of hers. Unluckily for him, Miss Smoke was watching, she grabbed him by the t-shirt and barrelled him into the wall. Before he even knew what had hit him, she shoved him outside towards Mr Large. Sara and I ran to the window to watch what was happening.

"This little piggy has been stealing food." Smoke said.

"Oh, is that right?" Mr Large sneered "Well, you know where pigs belong: in the mud." Large hauled Drew into the air and launched him face first into a pool of sloppy mud. "And you can sleep there tonight."

You could practically see Drew temper snap. "Stuff this." He yelled and stormed out of the gates.

1 trainee down, 7 left.


	9. Drop outs

**Sorry for not updating in a while, I had loads of schoolwork and exams :(**

**Shout out to Chameleons, the guest, kit, and Monte xx for reviewing chapter 8, thank you so much guys. Hope you like this chapter and please review!**

It was day 31 and as gruelling as ever. Hanna quit yesterday, she fell down a ditch and twisted her ankle. If it had been any of the other trainees they would've carried on despite the injury, but Hanna hadn't been coping well since the start and I don't think she could take any more.

My body was stained with mud and covered with a variety of deep purple bruises. I had been lucky not to have had any serious injuries, but getting a bit bruised and battered was inconceivable in basic training, especially when we were forced to spar daily. Luckily trainees had always had a unspoken pact of not to really hurt each other, but we had to fight enough that the instructors wouldn't think we were slacking.

Large told us to all gather round in the dojo and explained that only one pair would fight at a time and the rest group watch. First up were Sara and Otis. There was a blur of flying limbs as the two advanced fighters battled. It was hard to keep up with what was happening, but in the end Otis came out on top and had Sara in a headlock.

"Ruby and Olly your up." Mr Large instructed.

"Don't try too hard Barbie." Aaron scoffed resulting in a chuckle from Large.

"Barbie! I like that." Large mocked. I shot them both an icy glare before getting into position.

Olly and I were pretty evenly matched: he had the advantage of muscle and strength but I was fast and very calculating with my moves.

We started slowly, just circling, waiting for the other to make the first attack.

"Get on with it!" Large ordered, growing impatient with the lack of action. Olly suddenly charged towards me hoping to rugby tackle me to the ground. But at the last second, I sprang out of the way and hooked my foot through his legs trip him over. Olly fell to the floor ungracefully, landing on his back with a thud. I pounced on his chest ready to give the winning blow, but he barrelled me over so that he was lay on top of me, pinning me down with his weight. I tried to squirm from beneath him but I couldn't get him to budge.

"You win, I submit." I said before adding jokily "Now get off me you big lump."

But Olly didn't move. He lingered on top of me with his face just inches away. He had a flirtatious look in his eye, and I could tell he was debating whether to go in for the kiss, even though there was a room of full of people watching. I couldn't help realising that despite the fact we were fighting, our chemistry remained. Involuntarily, I started to giggle. Olly remained on top of me, and he joined in laughing. We weren't laughing at anything in particular just out of happiness that we were together. It felt nice to just forget all the troubles in my life and be happy for this one person who seemed to make everything better.

"Pack it in love birds." Large interrupted, ruining the moment "Zach and Aaron you're up." He said.

I wasn't paying much attention to the fight, that was until I saw Aaron fling Zach to the ground. Before Zach had time to react, Aaron dived onto him with full force. There was a chilling crunch, followed by tortured scream of pain. As Aaron leaped away, he revealed Zach who was lay clutching his crumpled mess of a leg.

"Oh god, Zach!" I said rushing over to him. His face had gone pale and I could tell he was in excruciating pain. "It'll be fine." I tried to reassure him, but even without any medical knowledge I knew there was no way he could continue basic training.

Large verbalised my thoughts saying "That's another one gone." He scooped Zach up in his arms ready to cart him off to the medical centre.

I felt awful continuing without my twin, and I didn't know if I could cope being away from him for such a long time. "Zach, I'll quit too and then we can start again together." I offered.

"No." Zach replied firmly "You've got to carry on. I'll be fine." I ran over to him and squeezed his hand comfortingly.

"Think of me when you're in your comfy double bed scoffing a bar of chocolate." I joked. Zach laughed but I could tell deep down he was gutted that he had to quit.

Once Large and Zach were gone, I spun round to face Aaron. I expected him to start grovelling but instead he looked pleased with himself.

"How could you?" I demanded.

Aaron was amused by my anger and replied provokingly "It's not my fault the scrawny loser couldn't defend himself."

"You nasty, vile, pathetic scumbag!" I ranted, calling him every insulting name I could think of. "Why would you even do that?" I asked in exasperation.

"Your brother was a boring partner, so I decided I'd get rid of him." Aaron admitted cockily.

"What?" I screamed "You did this on purpose?"

He just shrugged and smirked.

The smugness in his face threw me over the edge. I was overwhelmed with hatred for the lowlife who stood grinning mockingly at me. I restrained myself from hitting him by slamming my fist into the wall. A sharp pain rushed through my hand as my fist made contact with the wall.

I glared at Aaron. "Next time this" I threatened, pointing to the caving indentation left I'd left in the wall, "will be you."

I stormed out, swearing revenge on Aaron.


	10. Sweet revenge

**Sorry for this update taking so long. Hope I still have people out there who are interested in this story. I have also started another cherub fan fict called Raven, so please check that out. And as always I would be really grateful for a review as it is so encouraging for me.**

It was day 67. Olly and I were making our way swiftly round the assault course, which had become all too familiar to us through basic training.

"Psssst Ruby." I heard a faint whisper and stopped dead in my tracks.

"Hey did you hear that?" I asked Olly.

"Hear what?" Olly replied, looking at me like I was going a little mad, before suggesting that we keep going.

I was about to continue until the voice called "Over here!" It was a little louder this time, so I was able to locate where it was coming from. I jogged cautiously to the barbed wire fence, with Olly tailing behind me. As I edged closer, I saw the outline of two camouflaged figures.

"Who's there?" Olly demanded. The dark figures stood up from their hiding positions, revealing their faces. A smile instantly emerged on my face.

"Grace! Becca!" I squealed in excitement.

"Shh, dummy!" Grace said "You'll give us away."

"Sorry, it's just so good to see you two!" I admitted.

"Well, we can't hang around for long or we'll get caught. But we brought you two some goodies." Becca said, fishing two bags of sugary sweets out of her rucksack and passing them through a small gap in the fence.

As I gratefully received my bag, I exclaimed "Tangfastics! They're my..."

"Favourites" Grace finished my sentence, before explaining "Zach told us."

The mention of my twin's name brought a flood of emotion. "How's he doing?" I asked worriedly.

"His injury was nasty; he had to have an operation to reset his leg and is still on crutches." Becca informed us.

"That Aaron's such a dick!" Grace said, voicing my exact thoughts.

Olly and I crammed sweet after sweet into our mouths like savages. The extra sugar would be a tremendous help, as at this point in training our bodies were drained of energy and we were constantly hungry.

After we had polished off the packet of sweets, Becca ordered "Give us the wrappers to dispose of, otherwise Large will find them and you'll get punished."

Suddenly, an idea formed in my mind. "Wait let me keep them, I have a plan."

As Olly and I raced around the assault course, trying to make up the time we wasted, I filled him in on my great scheme "It's time to get revenge on Aaron. I'm going to plant the sweet wrappers in his bed so that Large finds them!"

"That doesn't sound like a good idea." Olly warned "Large will flip and god knows what he will do when he's angry!"

I was slightly disheartened by Olly's unenthusiastic response, but I was still furious over what Aaron did to Zach. Usually, I would just take my anger out by starting a fight; however that would probably get me kicked out of training, so I had to take a sly approach. Olly didn't seem keen on my idea which meant I'd have to do it alone. At least that way he wouldn't get in trouble if I was caught.

That evening, while everyone was showering, I snuck back into the bedroom. I made my way over to Aaron's bed and lifted the mattress to put the wrappers under. I had to make it look like Aaron had tried to hide them, but I also had to make it obvious enough for the instructors to notice. I positioned the wrappers so that they were concealed pretty well beneath the mattress with only a corner pocking out. Once I was pleased with my work, I went back out to the others, trying my best not to look suspicious.

For the rest of the day, I was on edge. I had to wait until half past 8 to find out if my act of sabotage had been successful.

As usual, Large barged open the bedroom door and all of the trainees pilled in. After a few minutes, Large turned to leave, ignorant to the sweet wrapper which was practically in front of him. I cursed under my breath.

Large swung round, demanding "What did you say, Barbie?"

"Sorry sir." I said insincerely, before lying "I just stubbed my toe."

"Well..." He trailed off, his attention caught by something else. Large charged over to Aaron's bed and flipped the mattress off in one swipe. He grabbed the wrapper in his hands and shouted "What the hell is this!"

Aarons face was a mixture of confusion and panic, he jumped to defend himself "That's not mine!"

"How on earth did it get in your bed then?" Large challenged, shoving his head in Aarons face and showering him in spit.

"I..I..." Aaron stuttered, unable to come up with a plausible explanation.

"Well then everyone" Large shouted "Aaron has just earned you all a night of sleeping outside."

"That's not fair!" Sara groaned.

"Don't blame me, blame this greedy lying pig." Large said, clutching Aarons t-shirt and dragging him outside. We all reluctantly followed Large out into the cold. I felt awful for the way plan had backfired and now everyone had to suffer. Fortunately, Large's final instalment of the punishment was only for Aaron. He made him strip down to his boxers and instructed that he had to stand with his hands on his head for the entire night.

"Sleep well." Large teased before abandoning us to fend for ourselves in the bitter cold night.

"Well this is bloody great!" Otis said bitterly, before adding with heavy sarcasm "Well done, Aaron."

"They aren't mine…" Aaron tried to explain again.

"Save it." I interrupted not wanting the other trainees to figure out it was my fault. "Whether we like it or not, we're sleeping outside so let's just make the most of it."

The others didn't look any more enthusiastic so I suggested "Why don't we make a shelter? I saw a sheet of tarpaulin by the bins this morning."

"Ruby's right." Olly agreed "There's no way we can get through the night without shelter."

We managed to build a shelter in no time, all of us working as a team. Well, all of us except Aaron. He just stood sulking while the rest of got to work. We used the tarpaulin sheet as a barricade against the bitter cold wind, like I'd suggested and Sara came up with idea of taking the black bags out of the bins to use as covers. Although they smelt disgusting, our need for warmth took the priority. Once we'd all settled down to sleep, I snuggled close to Olly using the excuse that our body heat would help each other. Despite the cold, it only took me moments to daze off in his arms.

When I woke up, it took me a while to get my bearings and realise that I was sleeping outside in a bin bag! I rolled over to see that all of the others in the shelter were still asleep. From the sunlight it looked about 5am. My legs had cramp as the lack of space had caused me to sleep in an awkward position. I decided to get up and stretch them out.

As I got up, I noticed Aaron. He was still standing in his punishment position. He looked awful: you could see that his whole body was aching.

I started to feel a little guilty and walked over to him. "Are you okay?"

"I've been worse." Aaron said, putting on a brave face. We stood in silence for a few minutes.

I gave him an encouraging smile, and he locked eyes with me for a moment. Suddenly Aaron pounced at me, smothering his lips over mine. Before I could even pull back from the kiss, I was yanked forcefully away.

"You cheating bitch!" Olly shouted at me.

"It wasn't her fault, I kissed her…" Aaron began to explain but was stopped abruptly by Olly slamming his fist into his mouth.

"I'm gunna kill you!" Olly snarled and launched another attack on Aaron. After being up all night, Aaron was in no condition to fight back and Olly continued to beat him mercilessly.

"Olly stop." I pleaded as I tried to drag him off Aaron. But Olly just knocked me to the ground. I had never seen Olly act like this and I had no idea how to stop him or get him to calm down.

"Help!" I screamed trying to wake Otis and Sara. However it was Mr Large who came running over.

Large tried to wrap his beefy arms round Olly to restrain him, but Olly jabbed his elbow backwards, catching him in the nose. A trickle of blood ran down Large's face. Olly had worked himself into a rage and didn't stop there. He spun and launched a roundhouse kick into Large's ribs. Mr Large had clearly had enough and tackled Olly forcefully to the ground. By this time, Sara, Otis, and Speaks had all gathered round.

"Mr Speaks get this jumped up little shit out the hell out of my training ground." Large ordered, angrily wiping the blood from his face. Mr Speaks grabbed Olly from the ground and began to march him out of the grounds.

Before Olly reached the gates, he turned round with a hard expression and shouted to me "We're over."


	11. Make or Break

**Big thank you to HatefulLove for reviewing both of my fan ficts! Thank you also to calin na gaeilge, WeAreAllMadeOfStars and Monte xx for reviewing chapter 10. I tried to do a quick update for all of you guys :) Hope you like it and please review!**

Disaster had struck. Now that Olly had been kicked out and Zach was forced to quit, both Aaron and I had no partners. I would've happily gone on alone, but Large insisted that Aaron and I partner up. Now there were only four of us left, he wanted our chances of succeeding as high as possible.

When Olly had been my partner, we'd worked great as a team. We knew each other's strengths and weaknesses. Most importantly, we could communicate. With Aaron, from the word go, we were at each other's throats. Constantly arguing and bickering. My only comfort was knowing that there wasn't long left to go.

In the final days of training, we were flown out to Indonesia. We checked in to a fancy hotel on the first night. The steaming showers and posh mattresses felt like heaven compared to what we'd received during training. In the early hours of the next morning, we were picked up from the roof in a retired military helicopter. The four of us trainees were sat anxiously with our backpacks on, waiting as Large fitted us each with an electric wristband for emergencies.

"Don't remove the bracelet under any circumstances" Large instructed loudly over the noise of helicopter. "We'll be at the first drop point shortly. Everything you could possibly need is in the backpacks. Each team has three checkpoints to reach within the next forty-eight hours. If you don't reach all the checkpoints before the target time, you have failed training and you'll have to start again at day one. Remember, this is not a training area. Mistakes down there will not get you punished, but they might get you killed."

A tense few minutes later, the helicopter doors were slid open. Sara and Otis shuffled to the edge with their feet dangling over, before they jumped out together.

I'd never been fazed by heights and to be truthful, I thought it looked quite fun. Within moments, we had flown to the next drop point. Aaron and I were up. We positioned ourselves so that we were leaning out of the doors.

I turned to Aaron who had a terrified expression on his face. "Are you ready?" I asked.

"I don't think I can do this." Aaron replied shakily

"Stop being a wimp." I said unsympathetically. Before he had a chance to respond, I grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the helicopter with me. We both landed with textbook technique, collapsing on our sides to absorb the impact of the fall without injury. However Aaron wasn't happy.

"What did you do that for?" He shouted.

I shrugged "You looked like you needed a bit of a nudge."

"Well you didn't have to drag me out of the bloody helicopter!" He huffed.

"Stop sulking and help me translate the mission briefing." I instructed firmly, getting my head into work mode.

Luckily, my briefing was written in French, which I was now fluent in. But Aaron's was in Russian, which he was practically illiterate in. So while I deciphered the briefing, Aaron went through the packs.

"Do you reckon we need a copy of Romeo and Juliet?" He asked.

"No" I replied, adding jokily "we don't want you getting any ideas."

"You need to take this seriously." Aaron shouted bad-temperedly.

"Fine we'll take Romeo and Juliet if it pleases you." I snapped back.

Once I'd realised the gist of the briefing: travel north east to the first checkpoint by 1500, we set off. We remained silent for the majority of the journey. Only communicating when we needed to stop and re apply sun cream. The direct sunlight was causing our skin to sizzle and burn so we made sure to top up the sun cream every hour. However it obviously wasn't doing a very good job as when I looked over at Aaron, his skin was on fire. So we agreed to apply the sun cream every half an hour, even though it would cost us valuable time.

We had set a good pace, but the sweltering heat was beginning to take its toll. My t-shirt was drenched with sweat and my throat was burning with thirst. The sky was starting to darken slightly, which meant we didn't have much time. I started to hurry along the coastal lowland, with Aaron tailing behind. After walking for hours, my limbs hung heavily, causing me to be careless with my footing. My boot got caught on a root sticking out from the ground and I stumbled over. I was all too aware of how little time we had left, so scrambled to my feet and continued to plough on. I'd never been happier in my life to see a little red flag, signalling the checkpoint. As we got closer, I realised that Sara and Otis were there too.

As we approached, Otis commented "You two are cutting it a bit fine."

"Better late than never." I panted before asking "How long have you been here?"

"It's taken us about half an hour to translate the briefing." Sara said "Your envelope is here."

"Thanks." Aaron said, taking the briefing off Sara. This was when Sara noticed his burnt skin.

She began to giggle "Please tell me you didn't fall for that sun cream trick?"

"You've got to be kidding me!" Aaron shouted in disbelief.

"No, we figured the instructors switched it with some kind of oil." Sara explained.

"Those sneaky bastards!" I cursed.

"We'd better get going but good luck." Otis said, realising that we'd been wasting precious minutes talking.

It only took me a matter of minutes to translate the main instructions of the next briefing: travel west to the second checkpoint by 2000 and sleep overnight. Aaron and I set off immediately, keen to make up the lost time.

We butted heads for the whole journey. Constantly arguing over the direction, pace and tactics. It was a relief to spot another little red flag. I collapsed on the ground and kicked my shoes off. My feet were killing from hour after hour of walking. As I peeled off my socks, I was greeted with an array of angry blisters covering the soles of my feet.

Aaron had noticed a plastic bag and emptied out the contents. I was disappointed to only see a tiny pile containing basic rations and a can of fuel. Not only did the portions look measly, but it was all bland, boring food.

"Is that really all we're getting?" Aaron moaned.

"Oh well." I sighed "Beggars can't be choosers."

"We'd better collect some kindling to start a fire before it gets dark." He suggested.

While we were searching for the wood, I spotted some cloves out of the corner of my eye and jogged over to grab them. As I reached up and snatched the flower buds, I heard a rustle behind me.

I spun round instinctively. But nothing was there. I was beginning to think that I imagined it until I heard a low hiss. In front of me was a giant snake. It took everything in me not to scream. I tried to back away quietly, but I accidently trod on a twig making a loud snap. It slivered menacingly towards me.

"Aaron!" I screamed frantically "SNAKE!"

Aaron rushed over, grabbing a large branch from the floor. He lunged at the snake with the stick, but it twisted and snapped round to bite him. Its fangs clasped onto his ankle. He propelled the stick down forcefully into the snakes head, causing it to release his ankle from its jaws. Aaron quickly delivered the killing blow, incapacitating the snake.

"Are you ok?" I asked worriedly, bending down to look at his bleeding ankle. There were two distinct puncture wounds, but luckily they didn't look too deep.

"I'll be fine." He said bravely before adding "that snake was too big to be poisonous."

Once I'd helped him hobble back to camp, I built a fire and cooked us dinner. I managed to keep hold of some of the cloves from earlier and mixed them with the food for flavour. While Aaron ate, I cleaned and bandaged his wound.

"Listen, I know we've had our ups and downs but I really appreciate what you did for me back there." I said emotionally.

Aaron stayed silent, deep in thought.

He eventually looked up and broke the silence. "I've never told anyone this." Aaron confided "My parents, they died in an explosion. But it didn't just kill them. Most of our village were caught in it. Including the girl I loved, Jen. We'd grown up together our whole lives, we were inseparable. When the explosion went off, I ran for my life. I left her for dead. When I first saw you, you reminded me of Jen. All the guilt came flooding back. I was a coward. I should have saved her. I tried to go back, but it was too late." Tears were streaming down Aarons face as he relived the awful memories.

"Aaron it is not your fault. You did what anyone else would have." I told him sympathetically "You aren't to blame for what happened to Jen."

Aaron looked comforted. "I'm so sorry for everything I've done to you." He began "I've been such a jerk."

"It's ok, you had your reasons." I said forgivingly before adding "and I'm sorry for hiding the sweet wrappers in your bed."

"That was you?" Aaron asked in disbelief, and started to laugh.

"Afraid so!" I replied, before asking on a serious note "Why did you try and kiss me that time?"

Aaron shrugged "You were being all caring and it reminded me of Jen." Then he winked and added "And I can't deny that the fact that you're a stunner."

"Are you hitting on me again?" I teased.

"Maybe" He replied playfully and he moved in slowly for a kiss. I parted my mouth and lent forward to meet him. His lips were moist and his tongue was warm as it slipped into my mouth. The kiss was nice but had as little chemistry as the first time, so I pulled back.

"Let's just stick to friends for now." I said.

"Fine." Aaron agreed reluctantly, before adding cheekily "for now, anyway."

As I lay down on the earthy ground to go to sleep, I was exhausted. I was drained physically and mentally. I couldn't help but laugh at how quickly things could change. This morning, I despised Aaron, I thought he was the scum of the earth. But today, he turned out to be a decent guy, heroic even.

Although I'd hit a bump in the road with Olly, life was on the up: new friendship and only one day to go! What could go wrong now?...

**A/N Should I bring James Adams into my fanfict? Please let me know what you think**


	12. Winner takes it all

**Thank you soo much to the people that reviewed. Shout out to charles. , the guest, Monte xx and RockRoy**

**Sorry its taken a while to update again but I've just been suspended from school (oops) so that means I'll be able to write more! Look out for updates and please review :)**

I opened my eyes cautiously, unable to grasp my bearings. The bright sunlight burnt down on my face and it took a moment for my eyes to adjust. I felt the earthy soil, humid beneath my fingertips. With a mental sigh I allowed my brain to focus and recall that I was in the Indonesian rainforest on the last day of training. I looked over and saw that Aaron was up and raring to go.

"Wakey wakey sleepy head." He teased as he handed me a plate of breakfast, which was just reheated leftovers from last night's meal. I also noticed that he'd tried to translate the briefing and had organised and packed all of our equipment.

"Someone's eager." I commented before asking on a more serious note "How's your ankle? Do you think you'll be alright to walk on it?"

"It's still a bit sore but I've made myself a walking stick." He said, proudly presenting a carved length from a sturdy tree branch.

Once we'd eaten breakfast, we set off on our final hike. Aaron's walking stick proved effective in providing support for his ankle, however I was conscious that we were traveling at a slow pace. At the rate we were going, we would need a miracle to reach the checkpoint in time. The idea of falling short, this close to the end was crushing.

"We need a new plan." I said decisively, grabbing the map off Aaron. I studied it intensely. "If we cut across here" I said pointing on the map "then we're in with a fighting chance of making it."

"Ok, let's do it." Aaron agreed enthusiastically; he'd also known that there was no way they would've been able to finish in time on the current route.

After walking for almost four hours, we hit a sudden halt: we were at a dead end. We had reached the edge of a cliff.

"This can't be right." I said, checking the map in disbelief. It showed that the checkpoint was directly below us.

"We don't have enough time to turn back. We're going to fail!" Aaron said, starting to freak out.

"No, there's no way I'm giving up when we can practically see the finish line." I said firmly, staring down at the little red flag, bobbing in the deep water surrounding the cliff.

"I suppose we could try and climb down." Aaron said with such uncertainty that it sounded more like a question.

"It's worth a try." I replied optimistically.

Aaron began to climb and gradually descended down the cliff face. I could see the strain in his muscles as he lowered himself carefully. There was no way that I was strong enough to do that. On instinct, I paced back a few strides and then sprinted to the edge. I used my knees to propel myself off the cliff and sliced down vertically into the water.

As I thrust myself to the surface, I noticed a clear plastic bag bobbing in the water. I immediately realised the contents were all of our grey shirts. I raced out of the water to deliver the shirts to the other trainees who had gathered at the shoreline, along with the instructors.

I slipped the grey shirt over my head and couldn't help the grin that spread over my face. I'd done it!

On flight back we were on a private plane. I had never flown in such luxury: fully reclining seats, mini fridge and HD screens with the latest video games. Another bonus was that there were separated sections that divided the kids and instructors and so we didn't have to put up with Mr Large.

I hadn't realised how close Sara and Otis had got during the 100 day training. But it was pretty obvious to me now as they were loved up in the corner, smooching the hell out of each other.

"Get in there Otis, lad!" I called over jokingly. As I looked round, I noticed Aaron staring at me with a lustful look on his face, hinting that we should be doing the same as those two.

Deep down I knew I still had feelings for Olly, that kind of love doesn't go away overnight. But I didn't want to hurt Aarons feeling by rejecting him again. So in the spur of the moment, I grabbed a piece of chocolate cake, which I had been halfway through eating, and launched it in Aarons face. The look of shock was hysterical as the gooey cake remains mushed into his face

"This is war!" He yelled, sending a slice of peperoni pizza flying at me. The commotion had dragged Sara and Otis away from their saliva exchange fest, and they jumped up to join in the food fight. All hell broke loose as we fired food around the compartment. The other three decided to gang up on me: Sara tackled me to the ground and pinned me while the others poured ice down the back of my shirt. As the freezing ice cubes met the skin on my back I couldn't help but shriek.

"What the hell are you playing at?" Large bellowed, emerging through the dividing curtain "Get in your seats NOW!"

This had been the most fun I'd had for 100 days and in the spur of the moment, I flung a piece of the pizza at his bald head. It was a bull's-eye shot and splatted against his shinny scalp.

Aaron burst in to uncontrollable laughter as the tomato sauce dribbled into Mr Large's moustache. You could practically see the rage boiling up inside of him. His face had turned an angry shade of purple and the vain in the side of his head was protruding.

"You are going to regret this Barbie." He threatened, glowering at me before stomping off.

"Hey!" Aaron said, after he left "Only I can call you Barbie!"

The mood was lightened again and we giggled hysterically remembering the moment that the pizza slice slapped into his grumpy face. In a way, it was my revenge for him treating me like a piece of shit on his shoe for the past 100 days.

Our high spirits continued throughout the flight home, and when we reached campus we were greeted by our friends and family who had gathered to congratulate us.

The first person to embrace me in a hug was Zach. However, I barely even recognised him. Long gone was the skinny gangly kid. CHERUB had obviously kicked him into shape by the look of his newly found muscles.

"Look at you, macho man!" I exclaimed, teasingly.

"Good to have you back, sis!" He smiled.

By this time, a crowd had gathered around me. It was great to see so many familiar faces, however I still noticed one person who was missing- Olly. I quickly distracted myself, not wanting to ruin my good mood.

"Hey guys!" I shouted so that everyone could hear. "Who's up for a party tonight?" There was a roar of appreciation from the crowd.

"But where are we going to get booze from at this short notice?" Becca pointed out.

"Don't worry." I smiled as I revealed the contents of my bag. I had snuck off at the airport and managed to sweet talk a bar owner into selling me a load of cheap vodka and beer.

Grace squealed in excitement "This is going to be awesome!"

Word spread around campus in no time. By 10 o'clock that night, my room was packed with people and the party was in full swing. I was having a blast: it had been all work and no play for 100 days but now I could finally let my hair down. Aaron suggested we play a drinking game, which involved cards. I couldn't seem to grasp the rules and so ended up downing 10 vodka shots by the end of the game.

The buzz of the party had attracted gate crashers and my room had got too overcrowded, so we decided to take the party outside. As we snuck out the fire exit, I saw a tall boy in a hoodie waiting outside. I felt butterflies in my stomach as I realised who it was: Olly. He was stood alone, sipping a bottle of beer. I felt a rush of emotion and with drunken courage, strode over to him.

"Look who's back!" I winked "Did you miss me?" It sounded jokey but I genuinely wanted to know the answer.

"Congrats on the grey shirt." He said, avoiding the question. I couldn't help but feel rejected.

I changed the subject, and said "You should come and join in the fun." Before waiting for a response, I grabbed his arm and dragged him into the centre of the action. Everyone was playing spin the bottle. Olly and I joined the circle.

A few spins later, the bottle landed on me. When it spun again, it landed on a geeky looking boy with an acne break out on his cheek. I grabbed the bottle cheekily and turned it to face Olly instead.

"That's cheating!" The geeky boy began to protest.

"Shut it." Grace interrupted, knowing how I felt about Olly.

I leant in and kissed him gently. I'd expected him to pull away, but strangely he didn't. His strong arms wrapped around me, holding me close as the soft gentle kiss gradually turned into a deep passionate kiss. My night went up from there!

It was reaching 1 o' clock, and it was fair to say that everyone was completely wasted, but we were having the best time of our lives. Everything seemed like such fun, I hotwired one of the buggy cars and Olly and I raced recklessly around campus. It was such a thrill to be with him again.

A loads of laughter, kissing and alcohol later, my night turned into an elated blur.


	13. Trouble's back

**Thanks for the reviews :) here is the next chapter, hope you enjoy! If you do then please review and I will get started on the next chapter.**

The next morning was hell. I forced my groggy eyes open. It felt like there was a drum beating mercilessly in my head. A dry, acidic taste lingered in the back of the throat. I tried to recall the events of the previous night, but my memory was scrambled. This was the worst hangover of my life.

All of a sudden, my stomach retched. I raced to the bathroom so quickly that my head spun. I only had time to chuck my head over the toilet, before I spewed up last night's liquor. I swung the medicine cabinet open to search for some painkillers. I knocked back a couple of paracetamol, hoping it would take the edge off my pounding head.

Just as I was about to crawl back into bed, I noticed the red light flashing on my phone. It was notifying me that I had a voicemail message. I recognised the receptionist's voice as the message played: _"Zara Asker has requested to see you in her office at 8 o'clock to discuss the affairs that took place last night."_

I glanced at the digital clock beside the phone, and cursed immediately. It was 8:37, meaning I was over half an hour late. I threw on my new grey shirt and some combat pants, then legged it downstairs.

I hovered outside Zara's office for a moment to compose myself before knocking politely and entering. Grace, Aaron and about ten other kids were already piled in there.

"Nice of you to join us, Ruby." Zara said sarcastically.

"Sorry, I overslept." I said meekly, unable to think up a better excuse on the spot.

"Well no one's confessed anything yet, so perhaps you could shed some light." She pressed.

I didn't want to get in trouble, especially with my past record. But I didn't want any of the other to get punished either, when it was my fault.

"It was all my idea." I owned up "I brought the alcohol, no one else had anything to do with it."

"Is that right?" Zara asked the others. Although they didn't want me to tell on me, I'd already taken the blame so there was no point in them getting in trouble as well. So they nodded reluctantly.

"Well then, you can all run 200 laps, as maybe that will teach you not to get drunk." Zara said "Off you go." I turned to leave with the rest.

"Not so fast, Ruby." Zara said, sternly "You're not getting off that easily." I sighed and plonked myself in the leather chair opposite her. The last thing I needed right now was a lecture, especially with my killer hangover.

"Drop the attitude and sit up straight." She said sharply, causing me to wince as my head started pounding again.

"How did I know that you would be behind this trouble?" She said with an exasperated tone "You've only been back for a day and you've already caused chaos on campus."

"Come on," I pleaded "It was only a bit of fun."

"It was not fun, it was dangerous." Zara corrected, "I've seen the CCTV footage of you driving that buggy round campus like a lunatic." There was no point in me trying to fight my case if Zara had evidence of what I did.

"The kids who were just in here were the only ones I could identify from the CCTV, but I know there was more of you." Zara said "If you told me who else was drinking, then I would be willing to reduce your punishment.

"No, I'm not grassing anyone up." I said firmly.

"Well in that case." Zara continued "You're suspended from missions for 2 months and I've put you down for 100 hours of paperwork and file sorting."

I couldn't help but groan at this. "But I've only just got my grey shit." I protested.

"You should have thought about that before." Zara said. I had to accept that she wasn't one to go back on her word, so I was stuck with my punishment.

"You're free to go." Zara said before adding "Keep out of trouble, Ruby."

I went straight to the canteen to get some breakfast. The room was scattered with faces I recognised from the party. One face stood out in particular: Olly. Although last night was a bit of a blur, the one thing that I clearly remembered was kissing him.

Olly was sat alone. I picked up a tray of food before walking over to him. He seemed distant, not even bothering to look up at me.

"You alright?" I asked.

He shrugged and gave me a blank look, before glancing down at the floor to avoid my eye contact. I couldn't understand why he was ignoring me after we'd had such a good night together. I thought we'd rekindled our romance, but obviously not.

"Olly, what's up?" I tried again. This time he didn't bother to give me any kind of response, he just kept his eyes fixed on the floor.

"Suit yourself." I said under my breath. I grabbed my tray and went to sit with Grace and Becca, I wasn't going to stay where I wasn't wanted.

I tried multiple times to talk to Olly that day, but he carried on ignoring me. Luckily for him, basic training started again in a couple of days time, so he wouldn't have to avoid me for long.

As I was coming out from science, my arms pilled with textbooks and worksheets containing all the work that I had to catch up on, I wasn't looking where I was going and walked straight into Olly.

My books tumbled out of my arms and I scrambled on the floor to pick them up.

"Sorry" He muttered, bending down to help me. When we'd gathered everything, he turned to go. I grabbed his arm, knowing this was my last chance before he went back into training and I wouldn't see him for 100 days.

"Why are you being like this, Olly?" I asked, exasperated "I thought we were friends… more than that even."

"You don't get it, do you?" He said, cryptically.

"Get what?" I replied, wondering what on earth he was talking about.

"You broke my heart." He said, with a look of sorrow that made me want to hug him and take the pain away. I restrained myself, so I could hear what else he had to say.

He continued "When you kissed Aaron- "

"Aaron kissed me." I corrected.

"It's the same thing." He said, his emotions suddenly flipping to anger "Just admit it Ruby, you cheated on me!"

"I didn't mean to. I'm so sorry." I grovelled, reaching out to hug him. He shoved me away from him with such force that I fell back against the wall.

He turned to me with venom in his eyes and spat bitterly "Stay away from me, you slag." Without a second glance at me, he spun around and stormed off.

I slid down the wall on to the floor. Tears streamed down my face as I realised that Olly and I were really over. He was the closest I'd been to anyone since my parents died. But somehow, I managed to screw that up like I did everything. I was in such a state of self-pity, that I just stayed on the corridor floor, sobbing. I must've looked pathetic, but I didn't care.

"Ruby, what's wrong?" A worried voice asked "Has something happened?" I glanced up to see that the voice belonged to Aaron.

"Olly hates me." I snivelled "We're over." Saying it out loud set me off blubbering again. Aaron lowered himself down on the floor and cradled me in his strong arms. Hushing my sobs with comforting words. After a couple of minutes, I managed to get a grip on my emotions.

"I'm such a wreck." I admitted.

"No, you're not." Aaron protested "Anyone would have been upset."

"You're a sweet boy." I said sincerely.

"I'm just being truthful." Aaron replied, before lightening the mood by adding "Tomorrow morning there's going to be a queue of boys outside your door, all wanting a shot at getting with you."

I couldn't help but laugh and I wiped the tears from my cheeks. "You're such a charmer." I teased back "I bet you have half the girls on campus falling at your feet."

"But I only have eyes for one." Aaron winked. It felt so good to get some nice attention from a boy after my argument with Olly. It made me wonder if what I needed was a rebound guy to help me get over Olly.

Now that I'd composed myself, Aaron helped me up and took me up to my room. I collapsed on my bed and he perched on the corner next to me.

"I don't think you should be left on your own." He said before offering "I can stay with you, if you want."

I nodded and smiled. There was a moment of silence, giving me time to notice that Aaron was actually quite good looking. I mean he was no supermodel but he had nice features and a friendly face. But his good looks weren't even his best attribute, his caring, loyal nature was what stood out to me most, especially after the way he comforted me when I broke down in the corridor.

Without thinking, I leant forward and indulged him in a soft, tender kiss. He pulled away first, leaving me wanting for more.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" He asked like a gentleman, not wanting to exploit me when I was vulnerable.

"You're a really good guy." I told him. Most teenage boys would have taken advantage of me in that situation but Aaron was different. Although he wasn't my usual type, I was willing to give it a shot.

"Maybe we should just take this slowly." I suggested "See where things go." I normally rushed into everything, but that never seemed to work out so I needed a new approach.

"Sounds good to me." Aaron smiled, his lopsided grin made him even more adorable.

"I'll see you tomorrow then." He said, grabbing me in a hug before leaving.

Although it was only 7pm, I snuggled into bed. My body was still drained from the party and I'd had a rough day emotionally too, so I figured an early night was a good idea. The moment my head hit the pillow, I fell into a deep and much needed sleep.

**A/N review for an update:)**


	14. Hidden Identity

**Sorry it's quite a short chapter but I tried to update quicker than usual and I'm working on the next chapter now, so the next update should be soon. Thanks to reviewers, its much appreciated :)**

"You'll be fine, you can do it!" I reassured Zach, before I waved him off for his second shot at basic training. I saw Olly going in as well, but didn't bother to acknowledge him. I'd moved on now anyway. Things had been going good with Aaron, great even. We'd been inseparable since we started going out. Yesterday, I announced that we were officially together to my group of friends and although they were a little shocked that I'd moved on so quickly, they were still pleased for me.

After Zach had gone in through the gates to the training compound, there was no point in me sticking around, so I headed back inside. I had got up especially early to say goodbye, so now it was only half past 4 and I was wide awake. I decided that I might as well make use of my spare time and contribute some more to my 100 hours of paperwork sorting punishment.

I went into the small room behind reception, where there was cabinet after cabinet crammed in. Each cabinet contained a heap of jumbled up files that needed to be organised. I had come up with a system of sorting the paper into piles of function and then arranging each pile into ascending chronological order. The punishment wasn't exactly hard manual labour like ditch digging, or in disgusting conditions like cleaning duty, but it was still a tedious job and after an hour of being stuck in a tiny box room with a tonne of paper, I was bored out of my mind.

As I shifted through another stack of paper, I came across a file with Olly's name printed on it. Although I knew it was wrong, my intrigue got the better of me and I decided to see what was in it. But my conscience started nagging at me and so I told myself that I would only have a little peek inside. I quickly scanned over the basics like ethnicity and date of birth. As I flipped the page over, I was shocked to see a criminal record sheet. I looked down the list and counted that he had been arrested 7 times. The charges at the top were only minor offences like vandalism and shop lifting. But as I cast my eyes further down the page, it got a lot more serious. Olly had been charged with two cases of assault and possession of a knife. I gasped and slammed the file shut. I couldn't believe what I'd just read. I knew that I went off the rails from time to time. But this was different, Olly was a criminal.

When we were in a relationship, I confided all of my secrets in him and I thought that I knew everything about him. But I had no idea of what he was truly capable of. I was relieved that I'd got out of that relationship when I did.

I was still stunned by what I'd discovered so decided to go and talk to Aaron, even though it was only 6 in the morning. I took the lift up to his floor and knocked quietly on his door, not wanting to wake anyone else up. I waited for a couple of minutes, but he didn't answer so I resorted to hammering my fist on his door loudly until I heard movement from inside his room. There was a thud as he scrambled out of bed. He swung the door open, looking slightly confused to see me.

"Rubes, is everything alright?" He asked. He was slumped against the door frame, still looking half asleep.

"I just wanted to talk." I said, feeling bad that I dragged him out of bed. "But I can come back later."

"No no, come in." He insisted. He yawned before flopping back into bed and gestured for me to get in next to him. I crawled under the covers and lay beside him.

I was deep in thought as I couldn't decide whether I should warn people about Olly's criminal tendencies, go to the training compound and confront him, or just try and forget about it.

"So, what's up?" Aaron said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"I need some advice." I began. "What would you do if you accidentally found that a person you know did a really bad thing in their past?" I asked Aaron cryptically, not wanting him to know it was about Olly as that may cloud Aaron's judgement because he hates Olly after their fight in training and for the way that Olly treated me.

"Everyone makes mistakes." Aaron replied, and then added after a moment of thought "It's that person's choice if they admit to what they did. But if they don't want to, then they should be allowed to keep their past in the past."

I nodded "You're right." I knew Aaron was the best person to talk to, he was always so wise and knew what the right thing to do was. With his advice in mind, I decided that even though what Olly did was awful, it wasn't my secret to tell.

It felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders, not having to worry about what the right thing to do was anymore. I snuggled up to Aaron and soon forgot all about Olly.


	15. Intimacy

**I tried to do another quick update, so here's the next chapter! Thanks to WeAreAllMadeOfStars, HatefulLove and Monte xx for reviewing the previous chapter. Hope you enjoy and feel free to drop me a review telling me what you think. **

The bell rung, signalling that the day's lessons were finished. I made my way to the canteen to meet my friends for dinner, as usual. As I slotted myself in with the group, there was a heated discussion going on between Aaron and Jamie.

"They're arguing over whether Ronaldo or Messi is the best striker." Grace filled me in.

"Typical boys." I sighed, jokingly. With our lack of interest in their topic of conversation, Grace and I just chatted between ourselves. But we were drawn out from our conversation to see that the boy's argument had escalated into an arm wrestle.

"What goes on in boy's heads, I'll never understand." Grace laughed, shaking her head at them. A rowdy crowd had gathered around our table to watch the action. Aaron and Jamie sat opposite each other. They rested their elbows on the table in between them and then locked hands.

A member of the crowd volunteered himself as umpire and commanded "3...2...1 GO!"

You could see the strain in their muscles and the tension in their faces as they both used all of the strength they could muster.

"GO Aaron!" I cheered loudly, trying to motivate him. They were evenly balanced and neither could manage to get the upper hand. But then Jamie's grip started to slip and Aaron took full advantage. Just as Aaron slammed Jamie's hand down on the side of the table and the umpire declared Aaron's victory, the room went black. There was a moment of silence, as everyone was trying to figure out what had happened. Then the canteen erupted into mayhem. A bunch of red shirts started screaming and the older kids started yelling speculations that there was a bomb or an intruder on campus.

"CALM DOWN!" One of the chef's shouted, coming out from the kitchen "It's only a power cut." A couple of kids looked disappointed that it wasn't something more exciting. "Until we get it sorted, everyone needs to go back to their rooms." The chef instructed.

Everyone piled out of the canteen and headed up to their bedrooms. There wasn't a lot to do with no power, so I headed to Aaron's room with him so we could just chill out.

When we went into Aaron's room, it was pitch black. After a few minutes of searching in the dark, he managed to find his torch. But when he flicked the switch on, nothing happened.

"Damn." He cursed "I keep forgetting to change the batteries in this old thing." He flung the torch aside and rummaged in his draw, looking for some batteries. Instead he found a couple of small candles and a box of matches. The candle flames flickered, dimly lighting the dark room and creating a romantic atmosphere.

Aaron leant in slowly and his familiar lips met mine. Our tongues fondled as the kiss grew passionate and sensual. I felt his warm hand slide up the back of my top and he fiddled with bra clasp to undo it. As my bra was released from its position, he replaced it with his hands. He cupped his fingers around my boobs and caressed my chest, making me tingle. I lowered his combats pants, to reveal his boxers and I pressed up against him as we continued to make out. He slid down both my trousers and knickers, leaving me fully exposed and I responded by drawing down his boxers. A couple of seconds later, he fell back onto his bed.

"You want to go the full way?" He asked, with a hopeful expression. I nodded and gave him and seductive smile.

I joined him on his bed, where he took my virginity. The only way I could describe it is weird. It was painful, but in a good way. The sensation was incredible.

Once it was over, we cuddled up together, his strong arms wrapped around me. Aaron drifted off to sleep, but I was still wide awake. My head was swimming with questions about what had just happened. Was this a mistake? Was I good? Did Aaron enjoy it? Was I a slag? What would my friends say? Would I get kicked out of CHERUB?

The last question was what mattered most to me, but I knew the answer. No, as long as no one found out. And I planned on making sure that would never happen. I realised that it would look suspicious to people if I was seen leaving Aaron's room in the morning, and so I decided to go back to my own room now. I pealed Aarons arm off of my carefully, not wanting to disturb him. I couldn't be bothered searching for my clothes, which were scattered around the room, so I fished out one of Aaron's hoodies from his draw. It was a few sizes too big, so hung loosely off my slim frame. I tiptoed back to my room, not wanting to wake anyone up and draw attention to myself.

When I was snuggled up in my own bed, I was able to gather my thoughts. I was happy that Aaron was my first and I think it made us grow even closer. He was one of the rare good guys, a keeper as my mum would've said. When I was with Aaron, I felt secure and like I could open up to him about anything and that he'd always be there for me no matter what. He was goofy and cute and always made me laugh. A scary but exciting thought popped into my mind… I think I was in love.


	16. Start of something

**Cheers to the reviewers, it's much appreciated. Hope you like this chapter :)**

"I'm so proud of you, Zach!" I exclaimed.

"Cheers sis." He grinned, still excited that he'd got his grey shirt and made it through the full 100 gruelling day training. Olly had also passed, but I couldn't look him in the eye. I felt awkward that I knew about his criminal past but he didn't know that I'd found out about it.

Zach and I planned to go and get breakfast together and as we made our way over to the canteen, I filled him in on the latest campus gossip.

"You've missed a lot while you've been away. Aaron and I are together now." I told him, unsure how he'd react to hearing that I was in a relationship with the boy that had inflicted the injury that forced him to quit basic training the first time around.

"The most important thing is, are you happy with him?" He asked.

"Yes." I replied honestly "Happier than I've been in a long time."

"Then I'm pleased for you." Zach said and I smiled with relief. At that moment, my mobile started to vibrate inside my pocket. I pulled it out and answered without bothering to check who was calling.

"Ruby, it's Zara." The voice of the chairwoman came through my handset. I jolted.

"Oh, hi Zara." I said nervously.

"I'd like to see you in my office now, there's something I need to talk to you about." Zara said before hanging up.

"I'll catch up with you later." I told Zach, giving him a hug before we went our separate ways.

As I made my way down to Zara's office, I desperately tried to rack my brains to remember what I'd done wrong recently, but I couldn't think of anything serious enough to warrant being called into the chairwoman's office.

I walked in and without thinking, blurted "What've I done wrong now?"

"Relax, you're not in trouble." Zara laughed "For once."

Only then did I realise that there was an unfamiliar woman sat in the office, along with Aaron. A grin spread across my face, as I realised that we were must be going on a mission together. But my smile faded in an instant when Olly strolled in through the door.

"You've got to be kidding me." I muttered under my breath. Olly looked a little startled to see me there but didn't say anything.

"This is Amy Collins. She's a former CHERUB agent" Zara explained.

Zara introduced us each to Amy in turn, starting with Aaron, then Olly, saving me till last she said "And this is Ruby Richie." Before adding with a smirk "Our regular troublemaker." I laughed awkwardly, slightly embarrassed by my bad reputation and hoped that it wouldn't cause Amy to judge me before she had even got a chance to know me properly.

"Hi Amy, nice to meet you." I said politely, trying to redeem myself as I shook her hand. Amy looked in her mid-twenties, she supported blonde shoulder length hair and a pretty face. She had an athletic build and a deep tan. Both of the boys looked in awe of Amy. I shot evils at Aaron warning him that I was watching.

"She's not a patch on you." Aaron whispered in my ear, trying to suck up to me.

"It's good to finally meet you all, I've heard a lot about you." Amy said warmly. Zara gestured for us all to take a seat in the comfy chairs positioned around her desk.

"Before we get started," Zara said "I've heard rumours about bad blood between the three of you, is that going to jeopardise this mission?" Although it would probably complicate things, I was not going to pass on my first mission.

"No, we're fine." I lied. Olly and Aaron nodded in agreement, both not wanting to miss out on the mission either.

"Great." Amy smiled. "So I'll start by telling you a bit about what I do. I work for a task force known as TFU, which stands for Transnational Facilitator Unit." She paused for a moment as she noticed the three blank faces staring back at her with no clue what she was talking about. She laughed and added "Don't worry, nobody really knows what a transnational facilitator is, I'll explain."

I smiled, relieved that it wasn't just me that didn't know what on earth the TFU was.

Amy continued "Basically, you have terrorists who want to blow stuff up. You have organised crime like the Italian Mafia or the Japanese Yakuza, but at the top of the tree you have transnational facilitators. They're wealthy, well organised and they run illicit transportation and smuggling networks that enable global crime to function."

Zara stepped in to help explain "They might link a drug producer in South America to a street gang in the Philippines, or sell fake pharmaceuticals produced in India to a corrupt health official managing a disease outbreak in Africa." I nodded as I got to grips with the concept.

Aaron was keen to find out more and asked Amy "Have you taken transnational facilitators down before?"

"Yes, some of the biggest." Amy said "But this is my first time of having full control over the mission of taking them down."

"Well then we're all newbies." I joked.

"Exactly." Amy said "I'm just as nervous as you guys and want to succeed just as badly."

I noticed three files on the desk and assumed they were our briefings. Zara saw me looking and nodded in approval for me to take a closer look.

**CLASSIFIED**

MISSION BRIEFING FOR AARON DAVIES, RUBY RICHIE AND OLLY TAYLOR

THIS DOCUMENT IS PROTECTED WITH A RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION TAG. ANY ATTEMPT TO REMOVE IT FROM THE BUILDING WILL SET OFF AN ALARM. DO NOT PHOTOCOPY OR MAKE NOTES

_BACKGROUND_

_Trevor Evans was born in Hackney in 1968. He was raised in one of the poorest council estates in London. He was kicked out of his home at the age of 15 and he took to the streets to make money. Until the age of 19, he made a living as a street con artist, stealing wallets and phones of passers-by. Evans came into the big money when he travelled around America, scamming some of the largest casinos. Using this money, Evans returned to London and built up a criminal empire, known as the TEC. The main source of the TEC's income is through exports. Many of the products are suspected to be faulty and do not meet the required regulations. _

_In 1991, the TEC was suspected of providing damaged and faulty aeroplane engines to a flight company called Irareo Airlines, based in Russia. Shortly after this transaction one of Irareo Airlines planes crashed due to the fail of the engine when landing. 127 passengers along with 9 members of staff were killed. Mr Evans was arrested but released due to lack of evidence to support the claims._

_Due to his years on the streets, Evans had developed a thrill for scams and cons. In 1994, Evans preformed one of the biggest bank scams in the UK. A member of the TEC hacked into the software of cash machines all over the country and installed a monitoring bug to record the bank balance and pin code of every person that made a transaction. The TEC were then able to locate the people that had bank accounts with the highest balances and the pin code that responded to them. These people were then followed and their wallets and purses were swiped to get access to their bank card. Millions of pounds were then withdrawn from these bank accounts. Over the week that the scam took place, Evans bank account balance rose by over £5 million. He was arrested and questioned but there was not a strong enough link to the crime for the case to be taken to court._

_Trevor Evans has three children, and is separated from the mother of his children. He has full custody over all of his children, as he paid his ex-wife to stay out of their lives. Evans recently settled with his children in the very wealthy Notting Hill area. There are rumours that he often organises scam operations in the area, but on a lower scale in order to stay under the radar. His main profits and criminal activity lie in selling and exporting internationally through the TEC._

_MISSION REQUEST_

_Trevor Evans has three children, who he is very close to. Appropriately placed CHERUB agents may be able to befriend them and gather vital information to bring down the TEC._

_MISSION PLAN_

_Amy Collins will move into a house in the Notting Hill area with three CHERUB agents. Amy will pose as the older sister of the three agents, due to her age preventing her from playing a convincing parental role. If asked, agents will say that their parents were killed in a car accident earlier this year. The family name will be Quinn and all agents will keep their normal first names, to minimise confusion. _

_OBJECTIVE_

_Each agent has been selected to befriend one of Trevor's children, as follows:_

_Olly Taylor – Billy Evans (15 years old)_

_Ruby Richie – Amanda Evans (14 years old)_

_Aaron Davies – Wayne Evans (12 years old)_

NOTE: THE CHERUB ETHICS COMITEE ACCEPTED THIS MISSION BRIEFING WITHOUT RESERVATION.

_This mission has been classified_ LOW RISK. _The agents will be allowed to operate without a CHERUB mission controller. Amy Collins from the Transnational Facilitator Unit will take full control of this mission. Zara Asker will be on call if assistance is required _

"So when do we get started?" I asked eagerly, after reading the briefing.

"We leave first thing tomorrow morning." Amy said "So, go and pack a bag and say goodbye to your friends."

As we were leaving Zara's office, a hand grabbed my arm. I turned to see that it was Olly. I shook his hand off of me.

"What do you want?" I asked bluntly.

"I was just thinking we should put what happened behind us for the purpose of this mission." He said.

"Fine." I agreed, although it was going to be hard to forget not only about our relationship and break up, but his secret criminal past. I knew that we had to work as a team in order to succeed in our mission, so decided that it was best to forgive and forget…for now.

**Please R&R to tell me what you think of the mission and if you want an update.**


	17. Posh Totty

**Sorry that it's taken me ages to update, I've been really busy lately. I hope you think this chapter was worth the wait. Reviews are much appreciated.**

"You can't be serious!?" I said in outrage, staring at the hideous uniform which Amy had laid out for me on the bed in my new room. There was a pleated knee length skirt, a rigid blazer and a sludge green, baggy jumper. The only thing that was missing was a flipping straw hat! I reluctantly put my new uniform on. When I looked in the mirror, I was appalled by my reflection. I couldn't bear to leave the house looking like that, so I made myself look slightly more presentable by rolling up my skirt and swapping the unflattering jumper for a skimpy cardigan from my suitcase, which I hadn't bothered to unpack yet.

"I look like a nun." I whined to Aaron as he came in to my room, but he didn't look much better in his uniform.

"No you don't." He smirked "You look like a sexy school girl." He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close as we kissed. I felt his wondering hand crawling up the back of my skirt. I swatted it away, playfully. But he wasn't deterred and cheekily slipped it back up again.

Heavy footsteps pounded up the stairs and I pulled away just in time before Amy came in. "Come on love birds we need to get a move on." She said, ushering us out of the door.

Notting Hill Preparatory School was a private school which only the wealthiest of families in the area could afford to send their children. Billy, Amanda and Wayne Evans were a few of these lucky children, which meant that Aaron, Olly and I would also be attending for the duration of our mission.

Amy pulled up the car outside the wrought iron gates which surrounded the impressive Victorian styled building. Before we were allowed to get out of the car, she made us each repeat our background story.

"My name is Ruby Quinn. My parents were killed in a car accident earlier this year. My step sister, Amy, bought a house in Notting Hill with our inheritance, where I now live along with my two brothers. Olly is the eldest at 15, I am the middle child at 14, and Aaron is the youngest aged 12." I recited with a bored tone. I was dying to get out there and start the mission.

"Very good and what about your mission objectives?" Amy pressed.

"I have been put in the same form group as Amanda Evans which gives me a better chance of becoming friends with her. This will gain me access to her house when she invites me over, so I will be able to plant listening bugs, hack her dad's computer and search through his files. I will also subtly encourage Amanda to confide any of her knowledge of her dad's criminal activity to me. I must avoid arising suspicion at all costs as it may damage the mission and put myself and the other agents in danger. " I recalled.

"Ok, I think that's everything covered." Amy said, unlocking the car doors for us to go "Good luck."

Aaron, Olly and I finally got out of the car and made our way up the cobble stoned driveway leading to the main entrance of the school. A middle aged woman, who had a neat bob and was wearing a prim and proper skirt suit, stood waiting to greet us. I instantly took a dislike to her.

"Welcome to Notting Hill Preparatory School." She said with a sickly sweet smile. "I hope you'll be very happy with us here." It took everything in me to stop myself from rolling my eyes at her corny introduction.

"I'm Mrs Collderbank, your headmistress." The woman announced, her posh accent was starting to grate on me. She stretched out her gnarly hand and I shook it reluctantly. "I'll show you each to your form rooms as I'm sure you're very keen to meet everyone and make some new friends."

We followed our new headmistress down an array of long, confusing corridors as she led us each to our form rooms. I was the last to be dropped off. Mrs Collderbank rapped her knuckles on the door to get everyone's attention and then ushered me into the classroom. Silence fell as everyone craned their necks to see who the 'new girl' was.

"This is Ruby Quinn, she will be joining your form group." Mrs Collderbank introduced me, before adding "I trust that you will all make her feel welcome." She turned on her heel and left me alone to fend for myself. I smiled awkwardly, feeling every set of eyes in the room fixed on me.

I knew that everyone was judging and weighing me up. There were the nerds who were looking down on me, assuming I was a 'dumb blonde'. I flicked my hair behind my shoulders self-consciously. Then there were the testosterone filled boys who were looking me up and down, wondering if they had a chance of getting with me. I started to regret hitching my skirt up so high, as I could see drifting eyes working their way up my legs. And finally, sat in the corner was Amanda Evans and her group of girls, they were all watching me closely, trying to figure me out. But little did they know, I was doing the very same to them. CHERUB had taught me to analyse body language and from the way the group of girls had positioned themselves around Amanda, it was clear she was the leader of the group. This was not good news for me as I was going to have to compete with a bunch of other girls to be Amanda's best friend.

I held my head up high and confidently strode towards Amanda's group. But I was cut off by one of the boys. I tried to get past but he blocked my way.

"Hey you'd better come here or my dick will start cumming for you." He said cockily, causing his friends to snicker. I rolled my eyes at his immaturity.

"Guys like you are why girls turn lesbian." I said bluntly. The whole class burst out laughing. The boy's face blushed red as he failed to come up with a witty comeback. He scurried back to his seat as his friends began to tease him. The bell rang, signalling the end of form, before I got a chance to talk to Amanda.

I pulled my timetable out of my pocket and saw that I had P.E. next. I was pleased as it meant that I wouldn't have to try too hard as sport came easily to me. However with the school being so big, I had no idea where the sports facilities and changing rooms were.

"I have P.E. too, I can show you where to go if you like." A voice said from behind me. I turned around and realised that Amanda had been peering over my shoulder.

"That would be great." I smiled "I would've got completely lost." I was happy that I would get some alone time with her now that all of her friends had gone to their different lessons.

"It's Ruby, right?" Amanda asked, as we made our way over to the sports building.

I nodded "What's your name?" I asked, even though I already knew from the CHERUB briefing.

"Amanda but everyone calls me Mandy." She said. "It was pretty funny the way you embarrassed Sam in there." I realised she was referring to the boy with the immature chat up line.

I shrugged "Cocky boys have it coming to them."

"I'm with you on that." Mandy agreed. "My last boyfriend was a complete nob head."

"Same." I said, thinking of Olly "He was so jealous and controlling."

"I hate it when they get all clingy." She sympathised. We continued to bond over boy talk as we got changed for P.E. The lesson was on basketball and the teacher told us to partner up for throwing and catching practise.

I turned to Mandy and asked "You want to partner up?"

"Sure." She said. We collected a ball and spaced out to begin the drill.

"So do you live around here?" I asked as we passed the ball "I don't know anyone in the neighbourhood."

"Yeah I live close by." She said "You should come round tonight."

"Sounds good." I said with a smile. Our chat was interrupted by a loud blow of a whistle.

"We're going to go into a game now." The teacher instructed. We were split into teams and spread out on the court. When the game began, my competitive nature came out. I intercepted a dodgy throw from the opposition and sprinted with the ball to the net. I jumped up high and front flipped while dropping the ball into the net. There was a cheer from my team and a few of gobsmacked faces, including the teacher's.

"That was so cool!" Mandy enthused. I smiled and shrugged modestly.

The teacher blew her whistle signalling the end of the game and told everyone to go and get changed out of their P.E. kit and make their way to the next lesson.

"What've you got next?" Mandy asked once we were changed. I pulled out my timetable and found that I had maths.

"Oh fun, maths next!" I said sarcastically "How about you?"

"I've got science." Mandy groaned "and I've forgotten my homework so my teachers going to go sick."

"Fancy skipping class?" I asked mischievously.

"I thought you'd never ask!" She said and grinned at me like she'd finally found her partner in crime.


End file.
